Stephan: If you read me regularly you know that for the past several years I have been tracking and becoming increasingly concerned about the infiltration of law enforcement agencies and the military by christofascists. The Anti-Defamation League got access to secret Oath Keeper files that revealed how far along this infiltration has become. This leaves us with the question will these MAGAts follow orders if they are given to control the MAGAt christofascist movement in the U.S. or will they rebel and support them?
Introduction
In the wake of the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol, significant public and legal scrutiny was focused on the Oath Keepers, a large anti-government extremist group associated with the militia movement. Despite the group’s national profile, few specifics were known about its membership.
That changed in September 2021, when the non-profit journalist collective Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets) published – among other data – more than 38,000 names on the Oath Keepers’ membership list. The membership data provides unique insight into the people who signed up and paid dues to the organization over the years and helps illuminate the extent to which the group’s anti-government ideology has permeated mainstream society.
Traditionally, militias have largely eschewed engaging with civic institutions on an organizational level. However, in some ways, the Oath Keepers’ tactics presaged a shift across the far right. The group places a focus on seeking institutional power by specifically targeting current and former law enforcement, military, and emergency services personnel with their messaging and recruitment in the hopes that they will be able to utilize these unique […]
Stephan: Two things stand out for me as I read or watch MAGAt media. First,it always requires readers or viewers to follow certain regimes. Second, there is always a scam component in which the reader or viewer is asked to send in money. Donald Trump and Steve Bannon are the masters of the craft. each has made millions from their followers. This is a manifestation of the weaponization of lies through the internet and social media.
Graham Whitson of Haslet, Texas, awaits his turn after he and his Patriot Front comrades were arrested by Coeur d’Alene police on June 11 as they approached the city’s Pride festival. Credit: David Neiwert
One of the constants of the world of right-wing extremists is that their leaders all find ways to turn their authoritarian activism into a moneymaking operation that wrings funds out of their gullible followers. Even if these leaders buy their own bullshit—and most of them do—they also are assiduous in creating revenue streams generated from the eager suckers who lap it up.
Take Patriot Front, the neofascist marching gang that recently drew national headlines for being busted outside a Pride event in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, for example. A recent examination of the organization’s operations by Mackenzie Ryan of The Guardianfound that Patriot Front’s ability to spread its brand of hate politics by operating as a “white nationalist pyramid scheme” that recruits angry young men with a vision of creating a “warrior elite,” the reality of which is remarkably buffoonish.
“No other white supremacist group operating in the […]
Stephan: Because we now have a christofascist majority on the Supreme Court, the abortion issue is moved down to the states, which are easier for the MAGAts to control. The obsession in Red states with controlling women's bodies, including a large number of White women who buy into their own subordination, has led to the scam reported in this article. I see this as a major trend affecting the Great Schism Trend. Every day in a hundred ways we are becoming two countries.
Credit: Bethany Dawson / Insider
Fake clinics now outnumber real clinics by 3 to 1, with about 2,600 in the US, campaigners say.
Fake clinics post misleading information about fake or exaggerated side effects on their websites.
Campaigners want Google to stop these sites appearing in searches for abortion clinics.
Fake abortion clinics that try to trick pregnant women in states where abortion is now banned and are searching online for termination options were given an unprecedented boost after Roe v Wade was overturned earlier this year, campaigners argue.
Research shows that thousands of clinics posing as health centers offering abortions are ideological pro-life hubs that aim to pressure and shame pregnant women into abandoning their termination plans.
✎ EditSign which advocates for women’s rights and gender equality, found that fake clinics now outnumber authentic clinics 3 to 1, with about 2,600 now operating in the US.
For example, the Alliance found, in searching “abortion clinic New Mexico,” one of the first sites featured is the Care Net Centre of Santa Fe. While it appears to […]
Stephan: This is an example of the kind of story I am beginning to see coming out of Red states. It is just an example and far from the only one. Alabama, which is basically an authoritarian third-world country, is committed to having men control women. These are horrible stories and the only thing that is going to change this situation is the people of Alabama themselves. Will they? We will see what happens in November. We'll see if their votes even count.
Credit: Shutterstock
Many prisons had a difficult time keeping people safe during the COVID-19 crisis, but one Alabama jail kept a young woman in jail to protect her fetus.
Ashley Banks was arrested with an unregistered gun and a small amount of marijuana. Normally she would be let out on bond awaiting trial, but because she was pregnant and admitted to drug use, Etowah County put her in jail for three months, AL.com reported. She’s already at a high risk due to a family history of miscarriages.
“She’s not the only one, according to attorneys involved in her case,” the report explained. “Several pregnant women and new moms accused of exposing their fetuses to drugs have been held for weeks or months inside the Etowah County Detention Center under special bond conditions that require rehab and $10,000 cash.”
Rehab facilities aren’t cheap and if women are being forced to fork over $10,000 and pay for rehab, there aren’t a lot […]
Andy Kroll, Justin Elliott, and Andrew Perez, Staff Writers - ProPublica | The Lever
Stephan: American wealth inequality has reached such a state that it is now possible for a single individual who is amongst the uber-rich to alter the course of legislation and to do so in such a way that it favors a corporation or an individual to the detriment of social wellbeing. The United States is now such a corrupt country that this happens so frequently that it has become normal.
Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker / ProPublica. Photo by George Marks / Getty
In the mid-2000s, Barre Seid had begun thinking about how to leave a legacy. Riding the personal computer boom, the Chicago-based electronics magnate was on his way to becoming a billionaire. Seid, who considers himself a libertarian, now had the means to pursue a bold project: “attack philanthropy.”
To Seid, that meant looking for ways to place financial bets that had the potential to make epochal change. With little public notice, Seid became one of the most important donors to conservative causes during an era that saw American politics and society shift sharply to the right.
New reporting by ProPublica and The Lever, based on emails and interviews with people who know Seid, sheds light on one of the country’s least-known megadonors, revealing how an intensely private billionaire has secretly used his wealth to try to influence the lives of millions.
Seid has funded climate denialism as well as a national network of state-level think tanks that promote business deregulation and fight Medicaid expansion. He’s […]
