An unremarked aspect of this fascinating thread is that the non-appearance of antifascists on the scene Jan. 6, played a critical role in the failure of Trump's coup attempt. 1/
Trump had been building the "Antifa/BLM/Violent Left" narrative all year, but he focused on Antifa particularly after he lost the election, and stepped up the vitriol. 2/
It is now apparent that this was part of his scheme to invoke the Insurrection Act amid massive crowd violence. The Jan. 5 timing of the memorandum declaring Antifa a "terrorist organization" was not coincidental. See the resolution's language. /3 globalnews.ca/news/7557777/t…
Trump supporters eagerly prepared for their designated enemies to turn out in force, and shared “sightings” of them in the days leading up to them. This is was from a prominent QAnon supporter on Jan. 2. /4 justsecurity.org/74622/stopthes…
There was just one flaw with all these plans. Antifascists were able to see Trump’s scheme from miles away, and encouraged all their colleagues to avoid the capital city on January 6. /5
So when the mob gathered on the National Mall on January 6 and headed toward the Capitol, they encountered no resistance from any counterprotesters, much to their surprise. /7
Oath Keepers and Proud Boys alike had been warning each other for weeks to prepare for Antifa or BLM violence. Instead, the only resistance they encountered came from Capitol Police. /8
The first key step in Trump’s plan—for Pence to play along and decline to accept the ballots from the key battleground states—fell apart when Pence did his constitutional duty and certified the Electoral College vote in the Senate. 9/
Then, Trump’s plans to use intended violence between his army of “Patriots” and Antifa as the pretext for invoking the Insurrection Act vanished back into the mists of their imaginations.
We were very, very lucky. Credit Trump's foils for seeing through him. /10
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Was rooting around in my archives when I came across this. It's an instructive artifact of just how long the Christian nationalist/evangelical campaign has been demonizing and scapegoating the LGBTQ community.
It was a mailing from Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority in 1981. 1/4
I liked to keep an eye on what Falwell was doing back then and signed up for his mailings. This one arrived in a plain brown envelope (of course) with a warning that it was for adult eyes only. 2/4
The whole mailing was meant to evoke recipients' moral disgust. My favorite part was the cutlines. Also, Jerry apparently didn't like it when they made fun of him. 3/4
Idaho’s far-right extremists—first claiming that the hate-crime attack on the University of Utah women’s basketball team in Coeur d’Alene two weeks ago was a “hoax,” now saying it’s not a real crime—seem confused. So let me explain how the law got passed in Idaho in 1983. 1/49
This a tale of the wages of hate, by which I mean vicious, unrepentant bigotry intended to harm: How it terrorizes and toxifies whole communities, and how its practitioners behave stupidly, even when they think themselves to be smart. In the end, hate is stupid, but it hurts. 2/
The first sign of hate I saw in northern Idaho was the fliers. No one knew who was handing them out, but several came across my editor’s desk at the Sandpoint Daily Bee in the rural Panhandle in early 1979, brought in by a reporter on his rounds. 3/
Certainly it would be a way for Heather to avoid discussing all the far-right extremists she has aided and abetted. Like the “Patriots” who turned up in Coeur d’Alene in June 2021 to threaten and harass LGBTQ people.
I'm thrilled tonight because I finally managed to snag a recording of transient orcas for my collection of whale sounds, via the Whale Museum livestream at Lime Kiln Lighthouse. They're wildly different than resident orcas! Unfortunately, they don't appear on camera.
According to observers at the scene, these were probably the T49A pod, including the prodigious young male T49A1. More on them here from Maya's Legacy and @orcawild. sanjuanislandwhalewatch.com/orcas-t49as/
This is unbelievably good news. Decades of work to return Toki to her home waters are finally reaching fruition. local10.com/news/local/202…
Incidentally, I refuse to call her "Lolita," which was a stage name with lascivious connotations given to her by the Seaquarium's owners. She was only a calf when captured and was placed with a large male orca ("Hugo") who later killed himself. It was hoped they would mate.
Her longtime native name is Tokitae, though the Lummi Nation recently gave her the name Sk'alliCh'echtinault as part of the efforts to relocate her. dailykos.com/stories/2021/1…
Thanks to @nberlat for reviewing ‘The Nazi Conscience,’ which is now on my must-read list. Note how it obliterates the ‘sparkling fascism’ arguments of people like @shadihamid, who join the long tradition of telling people like me we’re overreacting.
Claudia Koonz’s thesis recalls that of Milton Mayer, whose ‘They Thought They Were Free’ remains an essential text for understanding fascism then and now. Some notable excerpts:
Of course, I already responded to Hamid. His answer pretty quickly revealed how shallow his argument runs.