Colbert Shows How Trump’s Racist Lies Led To Spa Shootings In Damning Supercut

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“The Late Show” host called the former president “a hateful man who left a stain” on the nation.

Stephen Colbert says former President Donald Trump bears a “particular responsibility” for amplifying the racist hatred that led to this week’s deadly shootings in the Atlanta area. 

Police say a sex-obsessed gunman fatally shot eight people, including six women of Asian descent, at three massage spas. 

Colbert noted the attack comes after Trump spent much of 2020 using anti-Asian rhetoric and slurs in front of his cheering throngs in an attempt to deflect blame for his mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic.  Continue reading.

White supremacist propaganda surged in 2020, report says

NEW YORK — White supremacist propaganda reached alarming levels across the U.S. in 2020, according to a new report that the Anti-Defamation League provided to The Associated Press.

There were 5,125 cases of racist, anti-Semitic, anti-LGBTQ and other hateful messages spread through physical flyers, stickers, banners and posters, according to Wednesday’s report. That’s nearly double the 2,724 instances reported in 2019. Online propaganda is much harder to quantify, and it’s likely those cases reached into the millions, the anti-hate organization said.

The ADL, which was founded more than a century ago, said that last year marked the highest level of white supremacist propaganda seen in at least a decade. Its report comes as federal authorities investigate and prosecute those who stormed the U.S. Capitol in January, some of whom are accused of having ties to or expressing support for hate groups and antigovernment militias. Continue reading.

As CPAC dismisses claims that its stage resembled a Nazi insignia, Hyatt calls hate symbols ‘abhorrent’

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For four days at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Orlando, speakers at the Conservative Political Action Conference shared a number of contentious views, from echoing false claims about election fraud to undermining the seriousness of a pandemic that has killed more than 512,000 Americans.

But some critics also took aim at a seemingly more mundane detail: the shape of the conference stage.

Images of the CPAC stage went viral this weekend as many noted a resemblance to the Odal or Othala Rune, a symbol emblazoned on some Nazi uniforms. The Anti-Defamation League has classified the insignia as a hate symbol that has been adopted by modern day white supremacists. Continue reading.

Democrat wins cheers with a passionate rebuke to opponents of LGBTQ rights bill: ‘You used God to enslave’

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If passed by Congress, the Equality Act would amend and expand the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Democratic Rep. Al Green of Texas gave a passionate speech in favor of the bill during a U.S. House of Representatives session on Thursday, noting some of the ways in which religion was deceptively used to justify segregation and racist Jim Crow laws in the past.

The African-American congressman (not be confused with R&B/gospel singer, the Rev. Al Green) told members of the House, “You used God to enslave my foreparents. You used God to segregate me in schools. You used God to put me in the back of the bus. Have you no shame?”

President Joe Biden has been an outspoken supporter of the Equality Act, but its Republican opponents have claimed that it would discriminate against religion if passed. Green alluded to the fact that the same type of argument was used in defense of segregationist laws during the 1950s and 1960s. Continue reading.

Liz Cheney issues stark warning to GOP lawmakers about distancing party from white supremacy

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Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) on Tuesday issued a warning to her Republican colleagues about becoming complacent on race relations and relative issues plaguing the United States following the Capitol riots as she urged them to “make clear that we aren’t the party of white supremacy.”

On Tuesday, the third-ranking House Republican participated in a virtual foreign policy event held by the Reagan Institute where she expressed concern about colleagues who refuse to blatantly condemn the deadly civil unrest that erupted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Cheney acknowledged that while some may have the desire to simply “look away,” it is imperative that they do not, reports Talking Points Memo.

“It’s very important for us to ignore the temptation to look away,” Cheney said. “It’s very important, especially for us as Republicans, to make clear that we aren’t the party of white supremacy.” Continue reading.

On Fox, Stephen Miller Falsely Claims Migrant Kids Were ‘Humanely Returned’ To Families

Former Trump administration senior adviser Stephen Miller appeared Thursday morning on Fox & Friends, to attack President Joe Biden’s immigration policies. During the interview, Miller falsely claimed that the Trump administration maintained a practice of “safely and humanely” returning unaccompanied minor immigrants to their families.

In fact, the practices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials during the Trump administration were notorious for their dysfunctional treatment of unaccompanied minors. A ProPublicareport last year titled “The Trump Administration Is Rushing Deportations of Migrant Children During Coronavirus” included young children who had “a parent in the U.S. ready to receive them, and no one in their home country to care for them,” and teenagers with dangerous family situations waiting for them back home.

The New York Times also documented that the administration had “deported hundreds of migrant children alone — in some cases, without notifying their families,” which also included other relatives in the United States, and that “others have been pushed back into Mexico, where thousands of migrants are living in filthy tent camps and overrun shelters.” The Times also reported the Trump administration had ordered the expulsion of minors who still had pending asylum appeals. Congressional Democrats had charged that the administration’s practices violated the existing federal law for the treatment of unaccompanied children, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. Continue reading.

The Boogaloo Bois Have Guns, Criminal Records and Military Training. Now They Want to Overthrow the Government.

Hours after the attack on the Capitol ended, a group calling itself the Last Sons of Liberty posted a brief video to Parler, the social media platform, that appeared to show members of the organization directly participating in the uprising. Footage showed someone with a shaky smartphone charging past the metal barricades surrounding the building. Other clips show rioters physically battling with baton-wielding police on the white marble steps just outside the Capitol.

Before Parler went offline — its operations halted at least temporarily when Amazon refused to continue to host the network — the Last Sons posted numerous statements indicating that group members had joined the mob that swarmed the Capitol and had no regrets about the chaos and violence that unfolded on Jan. 6. The Last Sons also did some quick math: The government had suffered only one fatality, U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, 42, who was reportedly bludgeoned in the head with a fire extinguisher. But the rioters had lost four people, including Ashli Babbitt, the 35-year-old Air Force veteran who was shot by an officer as she tried to storm the building.

In a series of posts, the Last Sons said her death should be “avenged” and appeared to call for the murder of three more cops. Continue reading.

The Boogaloo Bois have guns and military training. Now they want to overthrow the government

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Hours after the attack on the Capitol ended, a group calling itself the Last Sons of Liberty posted a brief video to Parler, the social media platform, that appeared to show members of the organization directly participating in the uprising. Footage showed someone with a shaky smartphone charging past the metal barricades surrounding the building. Other clips show rioters physically battling with baton-wielding police on the white marble steps just outside the Capitol.

Before Parler went offline — its operations halted at least temporarily when Amazon refused to continue to host the network — the Last Sons posted numerous statements indicating that group members had joined the mob that swarmed the Capitol and had no regrets about the chaos and violence that unfolded on Jan. 6. The Last Sons also did some quick math: The government had suffered only one fatality, U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, 42, who was reportedly bludgeoned in the head with a fire extinguisher. But the rioters had lost four people, including Ashli Babbitt, the 35-year-old Air Force veteran who was shot by an officer as she tried to storm the building.

In a series of posts, the Last Sons said her death should be “avenged” and appeared to call for the murder of three more cops. Continue reading.

Trump Official’s Last-Day Deal With ICE Union Ties Biden’s Hands

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A whistle-blower accused Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II of an abuse of power in making sweeping concessions to pro-Trump Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

WASHINGTON — A whistle-blower complaint filed on Monday said a top Trump homeland security official sought to constrain the Biden administration’s immigration agenda by agreeing to hand policy controls to the pro-Trump union representing Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The complaint accuses Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II of “gross mismanagement, gross waste of government funds and abuse of authority” over the labor agreements he signed with the immigration agents’ union the day before President Biden’s inauguration.

Mr. Cuccinelli — an immigration hard-liner whose legal legitimacy to serve in senior positions at the Department of Homeland Security was contested — essentially sought to tie Mr. Biden’s hands, according to the complaint. Continue reading.

Opinion: Trumpism is American fascism

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It is revealing how a political movement that claims to be dedicated to the recovery of national greatness has so readily and completely abandoned many defining national ideals. Donald Trump’s promise of American strength has involved the betrayal of American identity.

One of the most important strands of our founding ideology is civic republicanism. In this tradition, the common good is not automatically produced by a clash of competing interests. A just society must be consciously constructed by citizens possessing certain virtues. A democracy in particular depends on people who take responsibility for their communities, show an active concern for the welfare of their neighbors, demand integrity from public officials, defend the rule of law, and respect the rights and dignity of others. Without these moral commitments, a majority is merely a mob.

What type of citizen has Trump — and his supportive partisan media — produced? Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) still holds her job in Congress because she is representative of ascendant MAGA radicalism. Those who reflect her overt racism, her unhinged conspiracy thinking and her endorsement of violence against public figures are now treated as a serious political constituency within the Republican Party. Trump has come down firmly on Greene’s side. One participant in the Jan. 6 attack sent a video to her children saying: “We broke into the Capitol. . . . We got inside, we did our part. We were looking for Nancy [Pelosi] to shoot her in the friggin’ brain, but we didn’t find her.” The detail that gets to me? She sent this to her children. She was living in a mental world where vile, shameful things are a parent’s boast. And she saw her actions as the expression of a public duty — an example of doing her part. Continue reading.