False Flags And Resisting Without Destroying

As Donald "#BunkerBoy" Trump and his corpulent lieutenant goon William "Low" Barr paint "antifa" as the sole villain in the violence and destruction across the country, additional information emerges that points to some white nationalist ratfucking:

A Twitter account claiming to belong to a national “antifa” organization and pushing violent rhetoric related to ongoing protests has been linked to the white nationalist group Identity Evropa, according to a Twitter spokesperson.

The spokesperson said the account violated the company's platform manipulation and spam policy, specifically the creation of fake accounts. Twitter suspended the account after a tweet that incited violence.

As protests were taking place in multiple states across the U.S. Sunday night, the newly created account, @ANTIFA_US, tweeted, “Tonight’s the night, Comrades,” with a brown raised fist emoji and “Tonight we say 'F--- The City' and we move into the residential areas... the white hoods.... and we take what's ours …”

That's just a tiny tip of the false flag iceberg. We previously noted both the obvious presence of white nationalists in the mix of agitators, as well as their expressed desire to do precisely what's being done in so many communities across the nation.  Police violence is also begetting more violence. But if you think this is just "antifa," or just "bad actors," you're being duped by the same crowd that pronounced BunkerBoy "exonerated" in the impeachment process.

Regardless, Infidel 753 writes about innocent people getting caught up in the violence and mayhem that's destroying their communities, and concludes:

Unrestrained venting of anger is usually counterproductive.  Recall the enraged gangs of armed, creepy thugs who descended on state capitals in April, protesting against the lockdowns that most Americans actually supported.  They didn't do their own cause or image any favors -- and if they'd engaged in large-scale vandalism and looting, they would have alienated far more potential support. [snip]

There are ways of resisting police violence that will actually do some good.  Peaceful protests build public sympathy, without which efforts to curb police behavior can't succeed.  More effective is voting for Democrats at every level, since Democratic officials are much more likely to enact effective legislation and rules about the problem, especially if there's a strong demand for it from constituencies vital to the Democratic voting base.  Some progress has already been made -- the cop who killed Floyd has been fired and arrested, something which rarely happened in such cases until recently.  Targeting the innocent alienates potential support and ultimately benefits only the enemy.  It's what Trump and his gang want to see happen.

Trump and his neo-fascist thugs are looking for their Reichstag fire moment.  We can't allow the Trump regime to use acts of violence that include destroying local minority communities as pretext for wholesale authoritarian crackdowns.  Peaceful protest is an American right that the un- American Right would like to see crushed under Trump's would- be authoritarian heel (of course unless the protesters are heavily armed white males).  Another American right is the right to vote, which we must exercise in November to clear our system of the malignancy that ails it.

Here's an unoriginal thought:  the next step forward for anyone marching that's not registered to vote is to register -- and then work to get others to register.  Then VOTE.

The Next White Supremacist Mass Shooter? (Cont.)

This is officially an epidemic:

A Connecticut man who had amassed an arsenal of tactical weapons and body armor, and who police say may have been preparing for a mass shooting, left a trail of virulently racist and anti-trans postings online.

TPM found that social media accounts registered to Norwalk, Connecticut resident Brandon Wagshol both reflected elements of the police accusations against him and contained rants against minorities.

Wagshol was arrested, officials said, after a joint FBI-local police investigation on a tip that the 22-year old was trying to import “large capacity rifle magazines from out of state.” During the investigation, Wagshol wrote a Facebook post “that showed his interest in committing a mass shooting,” leading to a raid on his house and his arrest, the FBI and local police said in a joint statement.

Police say that they uncovered a weapons cache during the raid, including titanium body armor and a combat helmet. [snip]

He appears to have maintained at least two Twitter accounts. One, under the handle @wagshol_brandon, and another, under @naughtwagshol. Both list Norwalk, Connecticut as their location, and both are linked to other social media profiles apparently belonging to Wagshol.

The 22-year old frequently used racial slurs in the posts, and appears to have been fixated both on transgender people and on the FBI.  [snip]

The accounts also liked a string of extremely racist posts, one of which appears to have been a reference to the KKK demolishing someone’s house.

He's been charged with four counts of illegal possession of high-capacity firearm magazines, and is being held on $250,000 bond.

There's also another young white nut who's been arrested in Florida who fantasized about becoming the all- time mass shooting killer.  Whether he had political motivations or not, he had 400 rounds of ammo. No doubt he was part of a "well- regulated militia."

Monday Reading

As always, please go the the links for the full articles/ op eds.

Iowa's Art Cullen sets everyone straight on who and what's behind the racist war on immigrants who are doing much of the dirty work many "real 'mericans" won't take:

To set things straight: The people who want to deport the undocumented are the same people who wanted to bust the unions because they had too much power. Once busted, meatpackers were able to cut wages in half in the 1980s. The United Food and Commercial Workers is hamstrung by the dismantling of the National Labor Relations Act during the Reagan Administration. Since then, rural meatpacking communities have become weaker. Immigrants get blamed for taking jobs that resident citizens could have. But the jobs in Mississippi for poor people have always been exploitive. It’s a messed-up system: Put value on skills so no one wants to work in unskilled labor, recruit the unskilled to fill the jobs that Biff and Buffy who went off to college don’t want, exploit them, criminalize them, deport them, then complain about low wages brought by the great unwashed. The immigrants and poor black people do not set the wage. The boss does. He made sure the union went down. He made sure everyone thought that the Hygrade union man was getting paid too much. He convinced everyone that the union was stealing your paycheck. And now people complain that immigrants are ruining this country.

They didn’t break the unions, and they don’t set the wage. We want cheap food. Immigrants provide it, so we crucify them. Biff is learning arbitrage and hedging to be used later on livestock contracting.

We need a big change in this country.

So we do.  But let's not look to the press to be on the side of positive change.  Pressthink's Jay Rosen has several problems with the press he worries about going forward, one of which is this:

Explicitly or implicitly, it seems likely that Trump is going to run a racist re-election campaign in 2020, in which “othering” (not a word I like, but it’s the best I can do…) is basic to his appeal to voters. This goes way beyond noisy controversies like whether to use the term “racist.” Is the press ready for a campaign like that? Does it have the people and practices in place to respond? Is it willing to break with precedent to meet a threat without parallel? I doubt it.

From what we've seen so far, we doubt it also (see Masha Gessen's timeless piece on surviving an autocracy, especially rule number 3).

But, to give credit where due, the Tampa Bay Times uncovered the revealing Congressional Republican memo directing how members should respond to white nationalist/ supremacist mass shootings:

Congressional Republicans recently circulated talking points on gun violence that falsely described the El Paso massacre and other mass shootings as “violence from the left.”

A document obtained by the Tampa Bay Times and sent by House Republicans provides a framework for how to respond to anticipated questions like, “Why won’t you pass legislation to close the ‘gun show loophole’ in federal law?” and “Why shouldn’t we ban high-capacity magazines?" The answers are boilerplate Republican arguments against tougher gun restrictions.

But it also included this question: “Do you believe white nationalism is driving more mass shootings recently?” The suggested response is to steer the conversation away from white nationalism to an argument that implies both sides are to blame.

The amoral bastards are aiding and abetting their shock troops shooting up innocent civilians with their NRA- approved military grade automatic weapons.  That's about par for the course for them.

And at least one journalist, the Washington Post's Dave Weigel, casts a knowing wink at a habit of media types who regularly go on safari to capture the thoughts of the heartland:

Feels like an incumbent who can’t break 40% against any top challenger is in trouble, but we don’t know how many of these voters were polled in rust belt diners. pic.twitter.com/frKnLP3PFo

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) August 15, 2019

Your next stop should be Infidel 753's round- up of links to interesting posts around the internet, if you haven't already been there.  Also, his analysis of the pro- democracy movements in Russia and China is a good read on a topic that's frequently lost in our self- absorption as Americans.

The Next White Supremacist Mass Shooter? (Cont.)

Another one was stopped in time, for now:

An Ohio man has been arrested for making threats toward a local Jewish community center in New Middletown.

James Reardon Jr., 20, has been charged with telecommunications harassment and aggravated menacing and is being held in the Mahoning County Jail on $250,000 bond with a court hearing planned for Monday morning.

On Friday, the FBI Violent Crimes Task Force raided Reardon’s house and seized a cache of weapons and ammunition, including dozens of round of ammo, multiple semi-automatic weapons, a gas mask and bulletproof armor. [snip]

Police initially became aware of Reardon on July 11 when he posted a video on Instagram of a man shooting a semi-automatic rifle with sirens and screams in the background. He tagged the Jewish Community Center of Youngstown in the post.

"That kicked off an intense investigation, a very rapidly evolving investigation, because of the way the world is," New Middletown Police Chief Vince D’Egidio told Youngstown ABC affiliate WYTV.

Reardon is an avowed anti-Semite and white nationalist and attended the deadly "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, according to WYTV. During the raid on his house on Friday police also discovered anti-Semitic and white nationalist propaganda. 

They're continuing to crawl out from under rocks all over the country.  Maybe this weak simpleton (look at his smirking mug shot) just wanted to get arrested (posting a violent video and tagging a Jewish Community Center?) to give himself some cred among his incel buddies without actually, you know, "performing"?  WTF, we've already wasted too much time on another Shitty Walter Mitty.

(Photo:  Must've confiscated your MAGA cap)

Puerile "President" Back To Form In Less Than 24 Hours (UPDATED)

1. Trump yesterday, reading someone's words off a teleprompter:  "Now is the time to set destructive partisanship aside, so destructive, and find the courage to answer hatred with unity, devotion, and love ["for your favorite President, me" he didn't say]."

2. A real President speaks the truth, not mentioning names (click to enlarge):

pic.twitter.com/nNOVtQ50O4

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 5, 2019

3.  Trump's flying couch monkeys tell Trump what to do:

Brian Kilmeade complains about Barack Obama's statement about the Dayton and El Paso shootings: "Did George Bush ever condemn President Obama after Sandy Hook?" pic.twitter.com/oRJzhhFepK

— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) August 6, 2019

4.  Trump obeys, retweets, less than 24 hours after his dry mouth, inauthentic, rote reading off a teleprompter:

“Did George Bush ever condemn President Obama after Sandy Hook. President Obama had 32 mass shootings during his reign. Not many people said Obama is out of Control. Mass shootings were happening before the President even thought about running for Pres.” @kilmeade @foxandfriends

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 6, 2019

5.  Notice is taken:

Well, tbf, Obama never used the language of mass shooter and/or white supremacists ever, let alone in daily public parlance like you do, so....

— Victoria Brownworth 🏳️‍🌈 (@VABVOX) August 6, 2019

So much for the speech he could barely read. Back to form. https://t.co/DuImxAaRLM

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) August 6, 2019

That’s because the Sandy Hook mass shooter didn’t lay out guns that spelled Obama’s name, didn’t recite Obama’s words and didn’t target people Obama had likened to rats and criminals. https://t.co/VXQFf9HzWw

— Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) August 6, 2019

UPDATE:  FTW--

“Now is the time to set destructive partisanship aside, so destructive, and find the courage to answer hatred with unity, devotion, and love.”
            — A White House Teleprompter, August 5, 2019 https://t.co/qqhZoYTnHo

— George Conway (@gtconway3d) August 7, 2019

"Commit To Beating Republicans"

A great monologue by Steven Colbert discussing the recent gun violence, the asswipe in the White (Supremacist) House and his enablers in the rotted- out Republican Party and media.  (We endorse Colbert's giant pork sausage/ gun trade- in for the reasons expressed, btw.)



We also want to endorse former Florida Republican Rep. David Jolly's advice to voters:

"Beat 'em. Beat every single one of them.” -@DavidJollyFL pic.twitter.com/zuSTMOGTYG

— AlterNet (@AlterNet) August 5, 2019

"Commit to beating Republicans. Beat 'em.  Beat every single one of them. Even the safe ones in the House.  Beat 'em.  Beat 'em in the Senate. Take back the Senate."

That sounds right.

QOTD -- The Problem

"Trump is uniquely unsuited to the moment not only because he lacks empathy and decency. If we as a country truly want to speak with one voice and condemn hate, we must collectively throw him out of office. He’s the largest, loudest megaphone for white nationalism and for anti-immigrant fervor. He’s an implacable opponent of serious gun safety legislation. He is not merely in the way. He is the problem."  --  conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin, discussing Trump's disembodied teleprompter remarks today on the massacres in El Paso and Dayton -- not, as Trump said, "Toledo" (message: "I don't care.").  She also quotes Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA):  “I’m too busy watching what he’s doing to hear what he’s saying.”  So are we.

Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

Phil Rucker on the front page of today's Washington Post on the racist- in- chief's deliberately stoking hatred and violence: 

President Trump has relentlessly used his bully pulpit to decry Latino migration as “an invasion of our country.” He has demonized undocumented immigrants as “thugs” and “animals.” He has defended the detention of migrant children, hundreds of whom have been held in squalor. And he has warned that without a wall to prevent people from crossing the border from Mexico, America would no longer be America.

“How do you stop these people? You can’t,” Trump lamented at a May rally in Panama City Beach, Fla. Someone in the crowd yelled back one idea: “Shoot them.” The audience of thousands cheered and Trump smiled. Shrugging off the suggestion, he quipped, “Only in the Panhandle can you get away with that statement.”

On Saturday, a 21-year-old white man entered a shopping center in El Paso, according to police, and allegedly decided to “shoot them.” Inside a crowded Walmart in a vibrant border city visited daily by thousands of Mexicans, a late-morning back-to-school shopping scene turned into a pool of blood. Twenty people died, and dozens were wounded. [snip]

Regardless of the El Paso shooter’s motivations, Trump throughout his presidency has stoked fear and hatred of the other, whether Latino immigrants or black people living in cities or Muslims.

Although he has not directly espoused the “great replacement” theory of white supremacists, Trump has openly questioned America’s identity as a multiethnic nation, such as by encouraging migration from Nordic states as opposed to Latin America.

In speeches and on social media, the president has capitalized on divisions of race, religion and identity as a political strategy to galvanize support among his white followers...

In the same paper, E.J. Dionne, Jr., defines the right and wrong side:

When one side proposes ways that human beings might begin to solve a deadly problem while the other side leaves it up to God, you know which side is right.

When one side proposes solution after solution to contain gun violence — and offers compromise after compromise to get something done — while the other side blocks action every time, you know which side is right.

When the president of the United States and his most incendiary media allies fuel hatred of those who are not white while his opponents say we should stand in solidarity with one another, you know which side is right.

When one side brushes aside the dangers of racist and white nationalist terrorism while the other side says we need to be vigilant against all forms of terrorism, you know which side is right. 

And when Americans are gunned down in incident after incident, when we are numbed by repeating the same sorrowful words every time, when we move within a news cycle from “something must be done” to “the Senate will block action” or “the politics are too complicated,” you know America’s democracy is failing and its moral compass is broken.

Dionne calls out Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, whose unctuous subservience to NRA gun humpers was on full display when speaking to the media:

The wrong side in this debate does not want us to come together. On the contrary, its goal after every mass shooting is to deflect and divide. Here’s what Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said when asked by reporters what we should do about gun violence. “Listen, there are bodies that have not yet been recovered,” Abbott replied. “I think we need to focus more on memorials before we start the politics.”

No, Abbott, reading from the NRA’s script, started “the politics” right at that moment, and it is an insidious form of politics. Simultaneously, he deflected by pretending it’s impolite to answer substantive questions and divided by saying that those who raise them disrespect the dead.

Nothing disrespects those who are slaughtered more than the political paralysis Abbott and those like him are encouraging.

Nothing will be done as long as the wrong side is in control of the White (Supremacist) House and the Senate, where when Moscow Mitch isn't doing favors for Putin, he's blocking gun control legislation:

After the Democrats took over the House earlier this year, they passed the most significant gun legislation in a generation, requiring background checks on all firearm sales in the country, and another bill extending the background check review period from three days to 10 days.

The Senate has yet to consider the bills. 

After this weekend's mass shootings, Democratic leaders blamed Republicans controlling the Senate for blocking them.

They began demanding that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell take action this week, arguing they could help prevent the next large-scale tragedy. McConnell's office did not say whether the Republican leader is open to dealing with gun violence with new legislation.  [Spoiler alert:  of course he isn't]

Well, let's amend that last comment.  Republicans might be willing to deal with gun violence by attacking it at the root cause... video games!

House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) took to Fox News on Sunday in the wake of two mass shootings in El Paso, TX and Dayton, OH, to suggest that blame could lie at least partially with video games.  [snip]

McCarthy’s comments echo ones made by Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick on Fox & Friends Sunday morning. “How long are we going to ignore — at the federal level particularly — where they can do something about the video game industry,” Patrick said. “In this manifesto that we believe is from the shooter, this manifesto where he talks about living out his super soldier fantasy on Call of Duty.” 

Lie, deflect, delay, repeat.  The cowardly, sociopath Republican playbook.

This comes a bit late:

A San Francisco-based Web company announced Sunday it would no longer provide services to 8chan, a website notorious for hosting lawless message boards where manifestos have appeared before mass shootings.

The move came after a screed against immigrants was posted to 8chan shortly before a mass shooter killed 20 and wounded 26 at an El Paso Walmart and shopping center. Matthew Prince, CEO of Cloudflare, a firm that protects sites from cyber attacks, said he decided to drop 8chan because it “has repeatedly proven itself to be a cesspool of hate.”

Changing topics, the trade war with China is settling in for a prolonged duration.  Here's the immediate impact on retail clothing sales alone:

The new tariffs will jack up prices for consumers at the start of the back-to-school buying season, four large retail trade associations said on Thursday.

"President Trump is, in effect, using American families as a hostage in his trade war negotiations," said Matt Priest, president of the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America.

Stephen Lamar, executive vice president of the American Apparel & Footwear Association, said his group's members were shocked that Trump had not allowed the resumed U.S.-China trade talks to proceed further before acting.

The measure will hit U.S. consumers far harder than Chinese manufacturers, who produce 42% of apparel and 69% of footwear purchased in the United States, Lamar said.

Finally, please check out Infidel 753's link round- up (where we found that last piece on the trade war).  It seems every week he finds even more interesting links to share.  Impressive.

Tweet Of The Day/ Sunday Reflection

The Trifecta:

We have a white supremacist problem. We have a gun problem. We have a money in politics problem.

— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) August 3, 2019

That adds up to "a Republican problem."

Reported Racist Trump Fan Kills At Least 19 In El Paso (UPDATED)

Patrick Crusius, 21, has been identified by police as the lone gunman who killed 19 people in El Paso, Texas earlier today:

The suspect in a deadly mass shooting at a shopping mall in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday was widely identified on the internet as a young white man whose social media activity showed support and sympathy for the president’s apparent white nationalist agenda. The name and photos of a man purported to be Patrick Crusius quickly circulated across Twitter in the hours after the shooting that first began outside a Walmart store at Cielo Vista Mall was first reported. If those reports were accurate, Crusius, allegedly a Texas native, just turned 21 last week.

He fits the profile of far- right white nationalist gun nuts who are being enabled by the racist POS in the White (Supremacist) House.

The Shooter in El Paso according to a Sargent on the scene says the shooter is Patrick Crusius

If this is true, the Twitter account associated with Patrick is full of Trump and MAGA related postings.

Another right wing extremist motivated by xenophobia pic.twitter.com/2YIg8AnBh6

— Davis Schmiven (@WheresMyArk_23) August 3, 2019

He apparently also left a manifesto outlining his racist beliefs about "race mixing" and the "Hispanic invasion of Texas," which he posted on the right- wing neo- Nazi image board 8chan.

Once Trump started using the bullhorn instead of the dog whistle, the creeps started coming out of the woodwork, shooting.  These are the Trump terrorists that are the biggest domestic threat in America today. 

UPDATE:  8/4 -- The death toll now stands at 20, with 26 wounded.

UPDATE II:

President Trump's racism does not just offend our sensibilities; it fundamentally changes the character of this country. And it leads to violence. pic.twitter.com/SbuxGneFnh

— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) August 4, 2019

UPDATE III:  Paul Campos traces the shooter's notion of an "invasion" by Hispanics back to the Republicans who've been using that term.  They all have blood on their hands.

Another Day, Another Hate Crime

Yesterday, it was in Poway, California:

A 19-year-old man armed with an assault rifle walked into a suburban San Diego synagogue Saturday morning and opened fire, killing one person and injuring three others, including a child, in a mass shooting that the mayor cast as a “hate crime.”

The San Diego Sheriff's Office said that John Earnest of San Diego had been arrested in connection with the shooting at the Chabad of Poway but they didn't believe there were any other suspects. Police said he has had no prior contact with police and was being questioned by local detectives and local FBI agents Saturday afternoon.

What do we know about the shooter?  Take a guess!

Sheriff William Gore said authorities were looking into a rambling, multi-page manifesto that was published minutes before the shooting by a person with the same name, in which the writer claimed Jews were destroying whites and praised attacks in Pittsburgh and New Zealand. [snip]

Authorities were also “looking into the possibility” of Earnest's involvement in a mosque fire in nearby Escondido last month, a claim that is made in the manifesto, Gore said.

The shooting came 6 months to the day from the horrific murder of 11 congregants at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA.

Now, for the chasers from the white nationalists' commander- in- chief:

Hours after a gunman opened fire with an AR-15-style weapon at a synagogue, Trump fear-mongers about Democrats wanting "to take your guns away." pic.twitter.com/HgPFS6llXi

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 28, 2019

Trump denounces anti-Semitism one day after defending the anti-Semites who marched in Charlottesville https://t.co/Xomi5UFnuV

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 28, 2019

This follows the Trump regime's decision to disband the domestic terrorism intelligence group in the Department of Homeland Security, including reassigning its last two experts on white nationalist terrorism.  That's no unfortunate coincidence, folks.

BONUS:  To say these thugs have been emboldened would be an understatement.

Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

We have a theme today, growing out of the horrific events in New Zealand.

Amanda Sakuma discusses the failure of tech companies to weed out  far right- wing hate speech and violent content, following the latest example of the white supremacist who used social media platforms to upload his "manifesto" and video of his murdering 50 Muslims worshiping in Christchurch, NZ:

At this point, in theory, tech companies should be well-practiced in the art of blocking far-right hate speech and violence from their platforms. They’ve been having to deal with it for years.

After the 2017 Unite the Right rally of neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia — where a woman was mowed down and killed by an avowed Nazi sympathizer — tech companies faced intense public pressure to block prominent instigators of explicit far-right extremism. Twitter suspended a bunch of white supremacists and prominent provocateurs — including Milo Yiannoppolis, Alex Jones, and Gavin McInnes — but was hesitant to target other alt-right leaders like Richard Spencer. Gab and the Daily Stormer, two havens for neo-Nazis, were similarly banished to the darker recesses of the Internet. Reddit quarantined hate-fueled subreddits, while other companies like PayPal, GoDaddy, Squarespace blocked white supremacists from using their services.

In effect, individual leaders and groups were targeted in response to a high-profile flashpoint in American politics and culture. But for many critics, those actions were hollow in addressing the underlying proliferation of racist and white supremacist ideas that are peddled online.

Sakuma highlights an issue with self- policing right- wing hate speech, ignoring the danger it presents (our emphasis):

Friday’s massacre exemplified a larger problem that’s plaguing the internet. Platforms are struggling to self-police problematic content created by its users, while the lawmakers who would ostensibly impose regulations are either too reluctant or ill-equipped to do so — and many in both camps are predisposed to treat far-right rhetoric less seriously than other forms of extremism, to boot.

Will Bunch discusses the rising tide of white nationalism, enabled by certain familiar players:

It’s ironic that -- in a time when the American political debate centers on Trump’s made-up emergency about a border wall -- there ain’t no mountain high enough to keep the most vile, racist propaganda from spreading from Europe to the United States to Australia and echo back again in a matter of nanoseconds, and to keep that bile from inspiring the kind of deadly violence you’d never see from Central American immigrants.

After the banality of the wanton violence and the killer’s live broadcast, the second most shocking thing about the New Zealand massacre was how well versed the perpetrator was in right-wing tropes that aren’t just common on the American internet but find their way to “mainstream” venues like the Fox News Channel or the halls of Congress.

The Australian gunman said he wanted to spark more debate about our Second Amendment, invoked (perhaps sarcastically) the right-wing media celebrity Candace Owens, and spewed a range of warped theories about the threats to Western civilization from “invaders” that -- while horrible -- were only a degree or two more extreme than what we’ve heard from an Iowa congressman, Steve King, or from the good citizens of Old Forge, Pa. Or from certain quarters at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Speaking of Steve King,

Just white supremacist congressman   Steve King joking about civil war pic.twitter.com/AqpXkzIvRC

— Brian Tashman (@briantashman) March 17, 2019

How many more strikes does this vicious clown get before he's expelled from Congress?

Adam Serwer takes a deep dive into the antecedents of neo- Nazi white supremacist ideology in the U.S., and one of its most influential 20th century purveyors:

The seed of Nazism’s ultimate objective—the preservation of a pure white race, uncontaminated by foreign blood—was in fact sown with striking success in the United States. What is judged extremist today was once the consensus of a powerful cadre of the American elite, well-connected men who eagerly seized on a false doctrine of “race suicide” during the immigration scare of the early 20th century. They included wealthy patricians, intellectuals, lawmakers, even several presidents. Perhaps the most important among them was a blue blood with a very impressive mustache, Madison Grant. He was the author of a 1916 book called The Passing of the Great Race, which spread the doctrine of race purity all over the globe. 

Serwer discusses the pseudoscience behind Grant's "race purity" crackpottery and "race suicide" alarms, which is echoed today by the knuckle- draggers talking "white genocide" in relation to the current immigration debate:

...to recognize the homegrown historical antecedents of today’s rhetoric is to call attention to certain disturbing assumptions that have come to define the current immigration debate in America—in particular, that intrinsic human worth is rooted in national origin, and that a certain ethnic group has a legitimate claim to permanent political hegemony in the United States. The most benignly intentioned mainstream-media coverage of demographic change in the U.S. has a tendency to portray as justified the fear and anger of white Americans who believe their political power is threatened by immigration—as though the political views of today’s newcomers were determined by genetic inheritance rather than persuasion.

The danger of Grantism, and its implications for both America and the world, is very real. External forces have rarely been the gravest threat to the social order and political foundations of the United States. Rather, the source of greatest danger has been those who would choose white purity over a diverse democracy. When Americans abandon their commitment to pluralism, the world notices, and catastrophe follows.

Finally, please check out Infidel 753's blog round- up for the best survey of interesting recent posts from around the Internet.  It's always worth the time, in our opinion.

The Massacre In New Zealand

The wanton murder of 49 (as of 9 a.m. Eastern) innocent worshipers at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand hours ago serves as a terrible warning about the rise in the violent, global right-wing, white nationalist hate movement. The shooter, as self-proclaimed white nationalist from Australia, wore a body cam to record and disseminate his act of genocide, after posting a "manifesto" of hate on line. Calling it "The Great Replacement," the shooter, Brenton Tarrant, rants in the 74-page screed about whites being "replaced" by Muslims and other non-white ethnic groups. The shooter had reportedly been in contact with followers of Norway's racist mass shooter Anders Breivik, illustrating the connective tissue among white nationalist believers worldwide.

There has been a similar upwelling of right-wing white nationalist violence in the U.S., particularly since the election of bigot and demagogue Donald "Rump" Trump. He's frequently praised on white nationalist social media for his anti-immigrant stance and attacks on Muslims. There are also reports that the mass killer praised Rump in his manifesto, calling him "a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose."

Rump's incapable of acknowledging any role that he's played in emboldening white enthnonationalists. Indeed, in an interview with the notorious white nationalist rag Breitbart, Rump complained about the rough treatment the Dems are giving him, suggesting that he may call upon his violent supporters one day:

"I can tell you I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump – I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough — until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad." (our emphasis)

What's truly "very bad" is having Rump use his platform to fan hatred and violence against those that oppose him. What happened in Christchurch may only be a tweet from him away from happening here.

BONUS:

I’m not seeing practically any  discussion of the fact that the New Zealand terrorist cited Donald Trump, and far-right GOP hero lauded by Trump, Candace Owens, as part of his inspiration.

Had a sitting Dem president been praised by a terrorist, it would be non-stop news. https://t.co/BQacBj3zXZ

— John Aravosis 🇺🇸 (@aravosis) March 15, 2019

(photo: AP)

QOTD: Words

"Donald Trump has been standing at a mirror summoning a demon for the past three years. But he can honestly say he had no idea his words would summon any demon at all. He is sufficiently cretinous to see no connection between reality and the world he has been working so hard to evoke. These are magic words he uses to get people to the polls, and if the way they get to the polls is on the back of a historical monster, it is no great matter.

Here is a terrifying story: There is an ominous caravan, filled with dog whistles and nightmares. Another: We will have a tax cut by the election. Never mind that these are lies. Never mind that these are impossibilities. They are only words. Words do not matter." -- Alexandra Petri, in today's Washington Post, on the "scary stories" the rancid, self- serving monster in the White (Supremacist) House likes to tell to gullible dolts in order to achieve his purposes, regardless of the harm it does to us all.

This morning's mass shooting in Pittsburgh was perpetrated by someone who thought refugees were "invaders" "that kill our people."  Where do you suppose that idea, and Cesar Sayoc's fever dreams about "enemies of the people," came from?

White Nationalist Terrorism In Canada

The horrific mass terrorist shooting at a Quebec City mosque on Sunday was committed by a white nationalist admirer of French right-wing leader Marine LePen and an "anti-feminist," according to reports. The killer, Alexandre Bissonnette, killed 6 and wounded 5 in his rampage. The day before the killings, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sent a message of welcome to refugees being turned back by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officers at U.S. airports.

Some on the staff of White (supremacist) House of sociopath Donald "Rump" Trump share the Quebec City killer's fondness for the European neo-fascist right, in particular Rump's chief "strategist" and white nationalist propagandist Steve "Loose Cannon" Bannon.  The addition of racist Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III to Rump's cabinet as Attorney General would bolster the cabal. Any Democratic Senator that votes to confirm his nomination should be shunned and shamed for betraying what once were America's core values.