Behind The Masks

Why are Republicans meeting with mask-off neo-Nazis?

Without a peep from the Republican Owned Media . Not even mentioned in Google…

Republican congressman Matt Rosendale from Montana met with:

• Ryan Sanchez, disgraced former marine and member of the Rise Above Movement - a neo-Nazi street gang prosecuted for their role in the deadly 2017 Charlottesville Nazi rally.
• Pro-Hitler blogger Greyson Arnold, a white supremacist Groyper* and January 6th insurrectionist.

These are not mere far-right activists. These men support active calls for genocide against LGBTQ+, Black, and Jewish people in the United States.

From Mastodon:

https://kolektiva.social/@VPS_Reports/109961490100833234

* Groypers are a loose network of alt right figures who are vocal supporters of white supremacist and “America First” podcaster Nick Fuentes.

Patrick Casey, who heads the white supremacist American Identity Movement, is also a “lead” Groyper.

Groypers regularly confront mainstream conservative organizations like Turning Point USA (TPUSA) for failing to promote a truly “America First” agenda and for not being adequately “pro white.”

Many Groypers hold racist and antisemitic views.

Fuentes is careful to position the Groypers not as white supremacists but rather as “Christian conservatives” who oppose, among other things, immigration (undocumented and legal), globalism, gay and transgender rights and feminism.

Anti Defamation League:

https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounder/groyper-army-and-america-first

One more thing: http://bit.ly/3SWwqLV

That One Shitty Day

On The Lawn at UVa

Aug 17, 2017

5 years ago.

August 12, 2017 - "...very fine people..."

This one is restricted because of the footage showing the asshole James Fields running his car into a crowd of counter-protesters - viewer discretion is advised:

Hours of video at YouTube

I Got Questions

Is Glenn Youngkin a Nazi shitheel?

I don't know, because of course, I can't tell what's in his heart of hearts.

But it doesn't really matter if he's a Nazi shitheel or not - he was happy to be on a Nazi shitheel radio show, hosted by a Nazi shitheel, with an audience chock full of Nazi shitheels.

So while there's nothing truly definitive we can conclude about Glenn Youngkin actually being a Nazi shitheel himself, it's obvious he's being supported politically by whole big bunches of Nazi shitheels - who very probably believe him to be a Nazi shitheel.

Right Wing Watch:

Republican candidate for governor Glenn Youngkin appeared on Sebastian Gorka’s “America First” radio show in a clip posted to Gorka’s website Monday night.

Gorka, a former Trump White House official turned Salem Broadcasting radio host, has a long history of Islamophobic comments, once saying that taking Muslim refugees into America would be a “national suicide.” A Nazi-linked Hungarian group—whose pin Gorka wore to Trump’s Inaugural Ball in 2017—says that he is one of their sworn members.

Gorka has been trying to get Youngkin to come on to his show in recent weeks, suggesting that Youngkin was a RINO—Republican in name only—and needed to convince his viewers otherwise.

Thanking Gorka for having him on his show, Youngkin launched into his pitch, vowing to “get critical race theory out of our schools” and to “invest in law enforcement instead of getting them defunded.” He began criticizing Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe before Gorka cut him off.

“He’s one of the most reprehensible politicians in America,” Gorka said. “You are speaking to millions of Trump supporters across the nation; there’s no concern amongst them that Terry is bad news and will be bad news for Virginia. What they want to hear from you is that you support the America First agenda, that you support making America great again, and that you won’t be just, as somebody labeled you, potentially another Mitt Romney for Virginia. What can you do to reassure Trump supporters that is not who you are?”

“The president knows that I am a Virginia first governor’s candidate, I’m going to stand up for Virginians,” Youngkin said, touting his endorsement from the former president. He went on to claim that President Joe Biden is dispatching the Department of Justice to silence Virginian parents as he tried to bring the focus of the conversation back to the right-wing movement’s attacks on school boards for teaching about racism in U.S. history and LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum. “We’re going to make Virginia the best state in America. We’re going to save it.”

“He came on the show, give him credit for that. Look him up, go to Glenn Youngkin, go to his campaign site,” Gorka said. “We need to save America, and that includes the commonwealth. Thank you, Glenn Youngkin.”

Youngkin has tried to portray himself as a moderate, but the Republican nominee’s appearance on Gorka’s show is just his latest effort to court extreme figures and organizations. Last week, Youngkin spoke at the religious-right “Pray Vote Stand” conference held by Family Research Council—an organization the Southern Poverty Law Center has deemed a hate group. The week prior, he attended an event for the Family Foundation, a virulently anti-LGBTQ, anti-choice group.

Like Grandma said:

People are gonna know you

by the crowd you run with.

Anniversary

Two years ago yesterday, these assholes came to my hometown. They beat one of my neighbors bloody, killed one other named Heather Heyer, and injured dozens more.

There is no forgiving and no forgetting.

Raw Story:

It’s been two years since neo-Nazis marched with Tiki torches in Charlottesville, Virginia, and a new report from the Anti-Defamation League has found that many of the marchers have not fared well since that fateful weekend in August 2017.

The ADL this week published a “Where Are They Now?” guide to the 2017 Charlottesville demonstrators and found that a good deal of them suffered from various repercussions for their actions, including “imprisonment, job loss, de-platforming — or banning users who violate their terms of service — on social media platforms, travel bans and rejection by friends and family.”

Among those who saw their lives ruined by their participation in the rally are three former active-duty Marines who were discharged by the Marine Corps after they were discovered marching in Charlottesville.

The report also found that more than a dozen “Unite the Right” marchers have since been imprisoned for various crimes, most notable Ohio resident James Alex Fields, Jr., who was convicted of murdering counter-protester Heather Heyer after he plowed his car into a group of people.

But he’s far from the only neo-Nazi in jail, the ADL reports.

“Also sentenced to substantial time in prison: three of four men found guilty of ‘malicious wounding’ for their roles in the parking deck assault of an African American man during Unite the Right,” the ADL says. “Daniel Patrick Borden of Ohio was sentenced to three years and 10 months, Jacob Scott Goodwin of Arkansas received an eight-year sentence, and Alex Michael Ramos of Georgia received six years. A fourth man, Tyler Watkins Davis, is scheduled for sentencing later this month.”

And even Unite the Right organizers who are not in legal jeopardy have found themselves getting hounded by civil lawsuits at both the state and local level accusing them of conspiring to promote violence.

Moving Past It

A Nazi asshole killed Heather Heyer and injured 35 others when he drove his car into a group of people here in my home town August 12, 2017.

That asshole made a deal and changed his plea to guilty for 29 Federal Hate Crime charges.

As part of the deal, prosectors didn't ask for the death penalty, and the judge is reviewing the thing now.

James Fields could be sentenced to life plus 419 years in federal prison.

WaPo:

James Alex Fields Jr., 21, of Ohio admitted guilt to 29 of 30 counts in a federal indictment as part of a deal with prosecutors, who agreed they would not seek the death penalty in a case that has come to symbolize the violent resurgence of white supremacism in the United States. Fields is set to be sentenced July 3.

Late last year, Fields was convicted in state court of first-degree murder and other charges for killing Heather D. Heyer, 32, and injuring dozens at the chaotic Unite the Right rally on Aug. 12, 2017. The jury in that case recommended a life sentence, and a state judge is scheduled to formally impose it in mid-July.

The kicker, and a little taste of something I can't quite put my finger on:
Attorney General William P. Barr approved the deal.

These Three Things

1. Schooling is learning that Hitler's Nazis murdered 11 million people, including 6 million Jews.

2. Education is understanding how 40 million "regular everyday" Germans either believed it was necessary or were complacent enough to keep quiet about it.

3. Enlightenment is being able to recognize that it's happening again.

This Wacky World

Another indication that Cult45 is nine kinds of fucked up: The Germans are pushing back against the US ambassador because he's just a little too Right-Wing for them.

There's a silly irony in that, but there's also a very serious reality - nobody's gonna know more about how to spot a Nazi douche nozzle than the Germans.

NPR:

Richard Grenell has been the U.S. ambassador to Germany for barely a month, but already politicians on both sides of the Atlantic are demanding he be recalled.

The uproar is over Grenell's recent comments on Twitter and the right-wing Breitbart news site in support of Europe's conservative politicians who he said are making gains against the political establishment. German and U.S. politicians charge that the remarks could amount to meddling in Germany's political affairs.

Our State Department, meanwhile, is defending Grenell with the usual "Hey, c'mon, he's entitled to an opinion".

Aye, there's the rub.

Ambassadors are representatives of POTUS. Grenell wouldn't be there if he wasn't in line with 45*, and that puts him in line with Putin, and that puts him in line with the Daddy State Plutocracy bullshit being pimped around the world.

A Profile

Some good stuff from Luke O'Brien at The Atlantic:

The calls marked the start of a months-long campaign of harassment orchestrated by Andrew Anglin, the publisher of the world’s biggest neo-Nazi website, The Daily Stormer. He claimed that Gersh was trying to “extort” a property sale from Sherry Spencer, whose son, Richard Spencer, was another prominent white nationalist and the face of the so-called alt-right movement.

The Spencers had long-standing ties to Whitefish, and Richard had been based there for years. But he gained international notoriety just after the 2016 election for giving a speech in Washington, D.C., in which he declared “Hail Trump!,” prompting Nazi salutes from his audience. In response, some Whitefish residents considered protesting in front of a commercial building Sherry owned in town. According to Gersh, Sherry sought her advice, and Gersh suggested that she sell the property, make a donation to charity, and denounce her son’s white-nationalist views. But Sherry claimed that Gersh had issued “terrible threats,” and she wrote a post on Medium on December 15 accusing her of an attempted shakedown. (Sherry Spencer did not respond to a request for comment.)

Andrew Anglin

-and -

Anglin is an ideological descendant of men such as George Lincoln Rockwell, who created the American Nazi Party in the late 1950s, and William Luther Pierce, who founded the National Alliance, a powerful white-nationalist group, in the 1970s. Anglin admires these predecessors, who saw themselves as revolutionaries at the vanguard of a movement to take back the country. He dreams of a violent insurrection.

But where Rockwell and Pierce relied on pamphlets, the radio, newsletters, and in-person organizing to advance their aims, Anglin has the internet. His reach is exponentially greater, his ability to connect with like-minded young men unprecedented.

He also arrived at a more fortuitous moment. Anglin and his ilk like to talk about the Overton Window, a term that describes the range of acceptable discourse in society. They’d been tugging at that window for years only to watch, with surprise and delight, as it flew wide open during Donald Trump’s candidacy. Suddenly it was okay to talk about banning Muslims or to cast Mexican immigrants as criminals and parasites—which meant Anglin’s even-more-extreme views weren’t as far outside the mainstream as they once had been. Anglin is the alt-right’s most accomplished propagandist, and his writing taps into some of the same anxieties and resentments that helped carry Trump to the presidency—chiefly a perceived loss of status among white men.

If there's a Saving Grace here, it's the fact that these assholes talk big and deliver little.

Yes, I know, being inspired to kill somebody with a car or with a bomb or whatever is, by definition, a big thing. 

What I'm saying is that these guys like to whip each other into a rich creamy lather, but so far, they've been way short when it comes to being able to deliver on their threats. 

The anonymity of the intertoobz is a lot like having Invisibility as your super power.  You can "do" practically anything with near-perfect impunity in cyberspace. But when it's time to translate that video gamer shit into meatspace action, they seem reluctant to show up.

So far, it's just been a few crazies - which I think is pretty much the point. Anglin wants to motivate. He wants to spur others into taking the risks - funny how the Anglins and the Zawahris of the world say it's everybody's sacred duty to sacrifice for the noble cause, but they have important shit to do, so they'll have to stay back here in the rear with the gear.

Anyway, these worm cocks are plenty dangerous, but so far, their numbers are low when it comes to taking action - nowhere near the level needed for critical mass.

BTW - Is it just me, or has anybody else noticed what seems to be the usual pattern of the projection of self-loathing with these jagoffs?

Charlie Pierce

Charlie Pierce, Esquire Magazine:

The outrage against the piece was quick and volatile and, in truth, the story is a mess, as Fausset himself admitted in a very strange essay that ran virtually simultaneously to the story, the very existence of which leads the careful observer to conclude that the editors at the Times knew the story was a mess and told Fausset to cover the newspaper’s hindquarters.
The NYT's piece that sounded lot like normalization of America's Nazis drew a lot of fire (not undeserved IMO)

We regret the degree to which the piece offended so many readers. We recognize that people can disagree on how best to tell a disagreeable story. What we think is indisputable, though, is the need to shed more light, not less, on the most extreme corners of American life and the people who inhabit them. That’s what the story, however imperfectly, tried to do.

Every reporter has stories they wish they could have back. (It would be a shame if the inhabitants of this shebeen would Google some of the stuff I wrote about John Edwards back in the day.) But a newspaper is a collaborative effort. It is the job of editors to recognize when a story isn’t there—and especially so if, as Lacey claims, the story goes through multiple drafts and it still isn’t there, and especially so, as in this case, the paper has the reporter write an explainer about how the story wasn’t there. 

Pro tip, lads: if you send a guy out on a story like this in 2017, and he can’t come up with anything that Hannah Arendt didn’t say better in 1951, it really is time to move along. Anything else is flat dangerous. Ask Herbert Hoover if he'd like that speech back.

The Nazi Next Door

NYT put up a piece by Richard Fausset that everybody seems to think is "normalizing" Nazis. Kinda hard to disagree with that.

Here's a look:

HUBER HEIGHTS, Ohio — Tony and Maria Hovater were married this fall. They registered at Target. On their list was a muffin pan, a four-drawer dresser and a pineapple slicer.

Ms. Hovater, 25, was worried about Antifa bashing up the ceremony. Weddings are hard enough to plan for when your fiancé is not an avowed white nationalist.

But Mr. Hovater, in the days leading up to the wedding, was somewhat less anxious. There are times when it can feel toxic to openly identify as a far-right extremist in the Ohio of 2017. But not always. He said the election of President Trump helped open a space for people like him, demonstrating that it is not the end of the world to be attacked as the bigot he surely is: “You can just say, ‘Yeah, so?’ And move on.”

Nice try, NYT.  But you fucked it up. Again.

Here's a piece from James Hamblin at The Atlantic, mocking the Times as they just "put this out there and let you guys see for yourselves how awful it is that Nazis are just like everybody else":

“What can I say,” jokes Stevenson, as he sees me taking note of the spice rack. “I like garlic powder.”

We both chuckle. The shimmering evening sun glints off the porcelain saltshaker and casts a long shadow onto the linoleum. As I follow its path, his wife Stephanie appears in the kitchen doorway, an exasperated look on her face.

“You forgot to put the toilet seat down again,” she says, rolling her eyes and pulling her phone out of her back pocket. Stephanie is pretty. Her hair is saffron and flaxen, and she wears jeans also, and she has a wry smile.

Stephanie Stevenson is followed by a normal dog, who walks into the room with a slight limp, and Stephen pets it. He leans in.

“The Jews control all the money, and the world would be better off if they were dead,” he says, petting the dog. “Who’s a good boy?”

The question is rhetorical. I ask about the wallpaper.

Some people disagree with Stevenson’s political views.

“He’s a nice enough guy,” said the local grocer, Butch Tarmac, a registered Democrat. “He buys apples and pancake mix. I also like those things. But I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree on the bit about the one true race cleansing the soil and commanding what is rightfully theirs.”

Sam's Back

Don't be stupid
Be a smarty
Undermine the Nazi Party

samanthabee.com/lifeafterhate.com

Samantha Bee:

Today's Both Sides Bullshit

These two things are not the same.

On the subject of "sometimes there's only one side": That's a nice-sounding slogan, but when I drill into it, I see False Equivalence again.

So yes, there are two sides. One side is the decent human being side. The other side is the unrepentant unremitting unreasonable asshole side.

Both sides vote. One side votes (mostly) for Republicans.

And we should be talking about all the times we heard politicians of a certain stripe spending breath and energy yammering on about how we can't appease these rotten guys - Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein, Radovan Karadzic, Manuel Noriega - that if we don't shut them down (by force if needed), they'll be emboldened; they'll go further; and we'll pay a much higher price trying to stop them later.

Where the fuck are you this time, Republicans?  Oh right, I almost forgot - they are you and you are them. There's not a dime's worth of difference between you and the knuckle-draggers you've been courting for 40 years with all that coded language. That's the GOP now. That's who you are, and I guess I should try not to be surprised by any of this.

Stop cowering, get back up on your hind legs and help us do something about it.

You Can Call It A Polecat

...but it's never gonna be nuthin' but a fuckin' skunk.

Nice try on that rebranding thing, fellas, but this

...is still this

Cornered

Christopher Cantwell - Alt-Right, Smug-White, Fucking Nazi Ass-Wipe - the guy they spotlighted in that VICE piece on HBO a few days ago.

It's the Age Of Poor Poor Pitiful Me.

Something that just got clearer: these jagoffs talk trash all the time about how "all those people" are getting everything for free, and they're a burden to society, and honest tax-paying Americans always have to pick up the tab, and blah blah blah.

But Cantwell's not bitchin' because somebody else is gettin' the goodies - he's bitchin' cuz he's not gettin' the goodies.

There's a lot of weirdness rattling around in my brain about all this - economic pyramids, and wealth disparity, and Maslov's Hierarchy, and the downward pressure of that Supply Side crap, and what always happens when there's too much power in too few hands and too many people with nothing more to lose.

The kicker is - I wasn't expecting Cantwell to be so scared. You don't cry like that if you're not scared.  And that's quite the odd little wrinkle.

Scary Shit

HBO's VICE News via YouTube:

...but a little bit encouraging in spite of it all.

Because we've been here before, and we managed to muddle thru just by stumbling forward.

Same Assholes, New Century

It still seems like a recycled bromide when we try to remind ourselves that we've seen this "Take Our Country Back" malarkey before.

But in certain parts of the world, they remember the lessons quite well, and apparently, a lot of them won't be putting up with any of our bullshit.

The Guardian:

A drunken American tourist has been beaten up in the German city of Dresden after he repeatedly raised his arm to give the Nazi salute, police said.

The 41-year-old man, who was lightly injured in the attack, was being investigated for violating the law against the use of symbols from banned organisations, Dresden police said in a statement.

The incident happened on Saturday morning as the tourist, who was “strongly under the influence of alcohol”, left a bar in the eastern city’s Neustadt area and repeatedly gave the Hitler salute on the street.

“An unknown passerby then beat up the man and slightly injured him,” the statement said.
Don't Be A Sucker

History doesn't actually repeat itself. But because we tend to make the same mistakes every hundred years or so, it sure as fuck rhymes.

Richard Spencer

Via The Atlantic:

Spencer has popularized the term “alt-right” to describe the movement he leads. Spencer has said his dream is “a new society, an ethno-state that would be a gathering point for all Europeans,” and has called for “peaceful ethnic cleansing.”