Politics & Stuff

[Vesper 29,015]

Trump Boasts He Has ‘Beautiful White Skin’ Right After Slamming Kamala Harris (video at the link)

https://www.mediaite.com/trump/trump-boasts-he-has-beautiful-white-skin-right-after-slamming-kamala-harris/

Former President Donald Trump stumped in Michigan on Friday, where he told rally-goers he has ‘beautiful white skin” after criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump is locked in a tight race with Harris, who, if elected, would become the first woman president. She would also become the first president of Indian descent and the second Black president.

The Republican nominee has repeatedly referred to Harris as “a low I.Q. individual” at rallies. Rather infamously, he questioned Harris’s Blackness while speaking at a conference of Black journalists in July.

“I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black,” Trump said at the time. “And now she wants to be known as Black. So, I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?”

Speaking in Warren, Michigan, Trump criticized Harris and then complained that campaigning has prevented him from hitting the beach.

“She wants to tax companies,” he said. “You know what happens when you tax them? They leave. A lot of these big companies, you know, they’re run by inter– they live in Switzerland. They have very glamorous lives. They have the life that I could’ve had if I decided not to do this, actually. Somebody said to me, ‘Are you glad you did it?’ I said, ‘Absolutely, but I could’ve been on the best beaches in the world. I own the best beaches in the world.'”

The former president then bragged about having “beautiful white skin” and griped that the presidential race has prevented him from getting a proper tan:

I could’ve been at the great Turnberry in Scotland. I could’ve been anywhere I wanted to be. I could’ve had those waves smacking me in the face. That white, beautiful white skin that I have would be nice and tan. I got the whitest skin ’cause I never have time to go out in the sun. But I have that beautiful white, and you know what? It could’ve been beautiful, tanned, beautiful.

Trump went on to tell the crowd he will “make America great again,” even if he has to do so without a tan.

Watch above via C-SPAN.

[Vesper 29,015]

Online Chatter about the Election Contains Warning Signs For Violence

https://globalextremism.org/post/online-chatter-election-contains-signs-for-violence/

This week, Jeffrey Michael Kelly was arrested for shooting at the DNC office in Tempe, Arizona and charged with terroristic activity among others. He was found to have 120 guns, 250,000 rounds of ammunition, body armor, and a grenade launcher at his house, and law enforcement believed he may have been planning to commit a “mass casualty event.” Kelly also placed several anti-Democratic Party signs lined with razor blades and attached bags with white powder labeled “Biohazard.” 

Kelly’s attack continues this year’s onslaught of political violence, including two assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump and arrests made for violent threats against Vice President Kamala Harris. This past weekend, a Texas man was arrested after punching a 69-year-old poll worker who asked him to remove his pro-Turmp merchandise while voting, a longstanding rule to ensure neutrality at polling stations. In another incident that went viral, a woman went on a crude tirade targeting a poll worker who asked her to remove her MAGA shirt. Police in Arizona, Oregon, and Washington are investigating ballot box fires started by incendiary devices. In Vancouver, Washington, hundreds of ballots were burned and 20 were damaged in Phoenix. According to a poll by Axios, Americans are already anticipating violence post-election, with 62 percent believing that violence is either “somewhat” or “very likely.”

 

The Global Project Against Hate and Extremism has researched 2020 online activity and compared it to what we’re seeing today. Once again, we are seeing the same warning signs of political violence based on election denialism combined with violent language across fringe platforms that we saw in the weeks before the 2020 election and before the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol. Online chatter on fringe platforms like Telegram, Gab, Communities.win, and the Fediverse are signaling a potential for political violence following the upcoming election. While in many cases the total number of messages on fringe sites is currently lower than in 2020, the percentage increase of violent rhetoric is still rising leading up to Election Day.

On Telegram, a platform favored by far-right extremists, violent rhetoric related to election denialism rose throughout October 2020, growing 317 percent over the month before skyrocketing another 1,628 percent the week of November 2, when the election took place. Following the election, a new, much higher baseline of violent political rhetoric emerged, with the average number of violent election denying posts in November and December being 1,415 percent higher than in October.

In 2020, violent election denialism on Telegram skyrocketed 1,415 percent in November compared to October (Source: GPAHE)

This year, a similar trend is developing on Telegram. Much like in 2020, violent rhetoric related to election denialism has risen 317 percent over the course of October 2024. Posts made on Telegram include using election denialism to justify an apparent “inevitable civil war” and a call to “Shoot to kill any illegal voters.” Throughout the year, Proud Boys online accounts, whose leader and members helped orchestrate the January 6, 2021 insurrection, have been calling for elected officials to be “arrested, tried for treason, and hanged,” and called for their supporters to “keep your rifles by your side.” Chat members in a Minnesota Proud Boys Telegram group are already endorsing real-world protests, such as one at the Minnesota State Capitol on November 2. The post advertising this rally calls on “patriots” to “take action” and “go to the streets.”

This year, election-related violent rhetoric on Telegram has seen spikes of over 300 percent during October, with the month not yet complete. (Source: GPAHE)

On Gab, a platform with a similar interface to Twitter, 2020 saw a 462 percent increase in violent election rhetoric during October, before rising a staggering 8,309 percent the week of the election. In the weeks following, the average number of instances was 2,730 percent higher than in October. 

In 2020, Gab saw a monumental 8,309 percent increase in violent election denialism between the end of October and the week of the election. (Source: GPAHE)

Throughout October 2024, violent election denialism on Gab has so far risen 105 percent. Many posts threaten perceived election fraudsters with charges of treason, which they believe the punishment should be “either firing squad or the rope.” Others called for “public executions for all voter fraud,” calling “all voters” the “enemy,” and shooting elected officials, who they call “traitors,” to “remove them from office.” Other users invoked ideation of war, suggesting that “the Military needs to be brought in,” and that “if the Dems win the CHEAT AGAIN all hell will break out, even a Civil War.” In some cases, antisemitism drove election denialism, such as claiming that a “Jew…controls both candidates,” that “the Jew divided us,” and allegations that the supposed Zionist Occupied Government (ZOG) “will install Kamala through obvious voter fraud.”

This year, violent rhetoric on Gab has been steadily rising throughout October, with the month not yet complete, providing a worrying indication of the normalization of such rhetoric online and potential offline violence (Source: GPAHE)

On communities.win, a collection of forums that includes The_Donald, which was originally banned from Reddit for hate speech in 2020, violent election denialism rose 78 percent in October 2020. The week of November 2, instances rose another 1,894 percent. Throughout November and December, the average number of such posts was 941 percent higher than in October.

In 2020, communities.win saw an almost 2,000 percent increase in violent election denialism during the week of the election. (Source: GPAHE)

So far, over the month of October 2024, violent election denialism has risen 25 percent. Many messages fantasize about a Civil War breaking out, asserting that “under no circumstances do the [Dems] let go of power,” “there’s going to be a civil war, a revolution, or maybe both,” and needing a Civil War to fulfill “The Great Awakening,” which the QAnon conspiracy movement alleges will be led by Trump to dismantle the “deep state.” Others said “if it comes to [violence]…there are plenty of people who will get the job done,” and claimed they were “ready to go to war.

This year, violent rhetoric has seen a 25 percent rise throughout October, with the month not yet complete, on communities.win. (Source: GPAHE)

Data was not tracked in 2020 on the Fediverse, short for “federated universe,” which is a collection of community owned, ad-free, decentralized, and privacy-centric social networks. However, throughout October 2024, instances of violent election denialism rose 75 percent, indicating a similar and worrying trend towards explicitly violent online rhetoric. Users shared posts blaming the “liberal media” for inciting a “war,” which will go from “cold to hot.” Invocations of war were common, either blaming the “left” for creating the conditions for war, or encouraging it themselves. 

On the Fediverse, violent election denialism has risen throughout October 2024, with the month not yet complete. (Source: GPAHE)

Following the 2020 election, unchecked extremism both online and offline contributed to the real world action of the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol building. With similar warning signs across social media platforms and multiple instances of political violence already occurring this year, ignoring these worrying trends will only risk further acts of violence related to election denialism and anti-democratic sentiment.

[Vesper 29,015]

Project 2025 October 29th Update

https://globalextremism.org/post/project-2025-october-29th-update/

Project 2025 is a 920-page plan spearheaded by the powerful and extreme far-right Heritage Foundation. More than 100 organizations support this blueprint for autocracy. Their stated goal is to create an “ideal” America that would see women, LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, people of color, and others deprived of their hard-won constitutional rights and the erosion of environmental and education protections. It also advocates for a frightening centralization of power in the executive branch. Rooted in hate and Christian Nationalism, the plan promises to “rescue the country.” Read GPAHE’s full analysis of Project 2025 and the groups behind it.

GPAHE tracks the activities of those behind Project 2025, and their plans for an authoritarian and Christian Nationalist America, no matter who is president, and the groups in this extremist movement are relentlessly implementing initiatives at local, state, and federal levels.

This week we look at Project 2025’s plans to reinstate Schedule F and restrict freedom of the press, its connections to the Only Citizens Vote Coalition, and how private conversations reveal the true nature of Project 2025’s disdain for the fundamentals of democracy.

The New McCarthyism: Watchlists and the Return of Schedule F

In an alarming escalation of efforts to dismantle the federal civil service, a Heritage Foundation-funded organization has published a “DHS Bureaucrat Watchlist” targeting Department of Homeland Security employees deemed insufficiently loyal to conservative causes, The Revolving Door Project reports. Complete with a tip line for reporting “subversive bureaucrats,” the list represents the most overt step yet in laying the groundwork for a revival of Trump’s Schedule F executive order, which removes employment protections from career government employees, and a return to the kind of political targeting that characterized the McCarthy era.

The watchlist, created by the Project 2025-supporter the American Accountability Foundation with $100,000 in Heritage Foundation funding, provides a chilling preview of how Schedule F could be weaponized in a second Trump term. Unlike the 2020 version of Schedule F, which was rushed through in Trump’s final months, Project 2025’s architects are methodically preparing lists of both career employees to remove and loyalists to install in their places.

The implementation of Schedule F would represent the most dramatic overhaul of federal workforce rules since the 1883 Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act. The original order, signed by Trump in October 2020 but quickly rescinded by Biden, would have stripped employment protections from up to 50,000 federal workers by reclassifying them as at-will employees. While ostensibly targeting “policy-determining” positions, the order’s broad scope encompassed administrative staff and technical experts — essentially anyone whose work touched policy implementation could be fired without cause.

The historical parallels are striking. The Pendleton Act emerged after President James Garfield’s 1881 assassination by a frustrated office seeker who believed he deserved a government job for supporting Garfield’s campaign. That killing crystallized public revulsion with the corrupt spoils system, where federal jobs were political rewards rather than professional positions. The resulting reforms established merit-based hiring, competitive examinations, and protections against political firings — precisely the safeguards that Project 2025 now seeks to dismantle.

Project 2025 seeks to reverse this progress. Beyond the DHS watchlist, Heritage Foundation staffers are filing a flurry of strategic Freedom of Information Act requests seeking communications containing terms like “climate equity” and “voting rights” — building dossiers on career employees who could be targeted for removal. A database of vetted replacements stands ready, while conservative legal scholars develop theories to bypass civil service protections.

The implications extend far beyond personnel changes. By replacing expertise with political loyalty, Schedule F would fundamentally alter how federal agencies operate. Career civil servants currently provide continuity and institutional knowledge across administrations. They offer technical expertise and objective analysis that helps governments of both parties implement policies effectively. Converting these positions to political appointments would make agencies extensions of White House political operations rather than professional bureaucracies.

“Creating watchlists of so-called subversives inside government is a tactic straight out of the McCarthy era,” warned Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees. “Far from doing anything to improve government, this shameful, un-American behavior makes it more difficult to attract top talent to important government positions.”

The immediate impact would likely mirror what happened when Trump relocated the Bureau of Land Management’s headquarters to Colorado in 2020, Talking Points Memo reports. Over 75 percent of affected staff chose to leave their jobs rather than relocate, gutting the agency’s institutional knowledge. Policy updates ground to a halt as vacancies went unfilled under hiring restrictions. 

For agencies like the EPA, FDA, or Department of Justice, such changes could hamstring enforcement of regulations and laws regardless of what remains on the books. Even seemingly apolitical functions like weather forecasting or food safety inspections could be compromised if scientific integrity is subordinated to political demands. The civil service system emerged precisely because the spoils system had proven disastrous — agencies lacked continuity and expertise, while corruption flourished as political appointees prioritized party interests over public service.

The DHS watchlist suggests this transformation could happen far more quickly and thoroughly than many realize, despite safeguards the Biden administration has put into place. 

Rather than gradual policy shifts, career federal employees could face immediate pressure to demonstrate political loyalty or risk placement on public watchlists — a modern echo of McCarthy-era blacklists. For an administration armed with Schedule F authority, such lists could serve as ready-made guides for systematic purges of career expertise from federal agencies.

This groundwork extends beyond individual agencies. Conservative media outlets regularly vilify career federal employees as “deep state” operatives, while right-wing legal scholars develop theories to bypass civil service protections. The goal seems to be creating both the legal framework and public acceptance for a wholesale purge of the civil service.

These developments represent an insidious crisis. The civil service, for all its flaws, provides continuity and professional expertise that enables effective governance across administrations of both parties. The preparations being made today through watchlists, personnel databases, and legal theories suggest this transformation could be implemented with unprecedented speed and scope, fundamentally altering how the American government operates, and not for the better.

Project 2025: A Blueprint to Restrict Press Freedoms

Recent proposals from Project 2025 partner The Claremont Institute reveal an ambitious strategy to fundamentally alter the legal landscape governing American journalism. At the heart of their approach lies a direct challenge to New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, the 1964 Supreme Court decision that has served as journalism’s shield against libel lawsuits by public figures for six decades.

In Claremont’s The American Mind, the Institute’s Carson Holloway outlines a three-pronged approach that would marshal executive power to dismantle these press protections. The plan would weaponize the Department of Justice to actively seek Sullivan‘s reversal through strategic court filings, while simultaneously ramping up public rhetoric against the current libel standard. This would be paired with continued appointments of judges viewed as sympathetic to overturning the precedent.

Some groundwork for such a shift already exists within the Supreme Court. Conservative Justices Thomas and Gorsuch have previously signaled openness to reconsidering Sullivan. The Claremont proposal would seek to build on this foundation, explicitly drawing parallels to the strategy that led to Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and the reversal of Roe v. Wade.

Beyond the direct assault on Sullivan, the blueprint includes broader mechanisms that could pressure news organizations. A Media Matters report highlights a renewed interest in leveraging broadcast license renewals as a point of pressure — a strategy that could find support from Trump-appointed FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, who authored Project 2025’s FCC policy chapter.

The implications for newsrooms would be profound. Without Sullivan‘s “actual malice” standard, media organizations would face a radically different risk calculation when reporting on public figures. Stories that today pass legal review might never see publication under a restored pre-Sullivan framework, where even good-faith errors could trigger ruinous litigation. Voices critical of the reigning political regime would be easily silenced.

This press strategy dovetails with Project 2025’s broader vision for executive power and a shared emphasis with Claremont on dismantling what they view as obstacles to presidential authority. The Mandate for Leadership envisions a Justice Department explicitly aligned with presidential priorities rather than operating with traditional independence.

Critical to implementation would be Project 2025’s personnel strategy. Their database of pre-vetted candidates, combined with proposed civil service reforms, would staff key agencies with officials predisposed to advance these changes. This includes positions at the Justice Department and FCC that could influence both the legal landscape and regulatory environment for news organizations.

The framework represents more than just another round of press criticism — it’s a comprehensive strategy to reshape the legal and regulatory environment in which journalism operates. By targeting foundational protections while simultaneously building pressure through regulatory channels, the approach would create multiple vectors of vulnerability for news organizations and drive the country further down the road to authoritarianism.

Inside the Only Citizens Vote Coalition and Project 2025 Connections

A new investigation by Issue One reveals deep structural ties between the Only Citizens Vote Coalition (OCVC) and Project 2025, with shared leadership, overlapping funding networks, and coordinated infrastructure that illuminates how these initiatives intersect.

At the center of both efforts stands Cleta Mitchell, whose fingerprints appear across the coalition’s organizational framework. Mitchell holds leadership positions in three Project 2025 supporter organizations that are also part of the OCVC: she chairs the Public Interest Legal Foundation, presides over the Election Integrity Network, and serves as senior legal fellow and secretary at the Conservative Partnership Institute. Her role as a contributor to Project 2025’s “Mandate for Leadership” document bridges these parallel efforts.

The coalition’s financial architecture reveals sophisticated networks of donor-advised funds and conservative organizations. Issue One tracked over $590 million flowing to coalition members since January 2020, with the Schwab Charitable Fund emerging as the dominant donor at $328 million. DonorsTrust contributed $80 million, while the Bradley Impact Fund provided $31 million. These donor-advised funds, which allow individuals to receive immediate tax deductions while directing grants over time, obscure the ultimate sources of much of this funding.

The organizational overlap between the coalition and Project 2025 runs deep, with approximately one-quarter of the coalition’s 80-plus member organizations directly involved in Project 2025’s planning efforts. This convergence appears most clearly in shared leadership positions. Linda McMahon serves on America First Works’ board and chairs the America First Policy Institute. Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows holds positions as senior partner at the Conservative Partnership Institute and director of the State Freedom Caucus Network.

The coalition’s largest beneficiary, the 85 Fund, which houses the Honest Elections Project, received $413 million from seven donor organizations — accounting for 70 percent of all identified funding. This concentration of resources through a single entity demonstrates how these networks can channel substantial funding while maintaining organizational separation.

Ed Corrigan exemplifies the interconnected leadership structure. A veteran of the Heritage Foundation and former Trump transition team leader, Corrigan now serves as president and CEO of the Conservative Partnership Institute while holding director positions at the America First Legal Foundation, State Freedom Caucus Network, Immigration Accountability Project, and Citizens for Renewing America.

Ken Blackwell similarly spans multiple organizations, serving on the Public Interest Legal Foundation’s board while holding leadership positions with the Council for National Policy, Center for Urban Renewal and Education, Conservative Action Project, and the America First Policy Institute’s Center for Election Integrity.

The funding patterns reveal strategic coordination through shared financial infrastructure. Mitchell’s Election Integrity Network provides a telling example: in 2022, it received 99.99% of its $753,255 funding from just two other coalition members—the Conservative Partnership Institute and Citizens for Renewing America.

Through this complex web of organizations, the coalition and Project 2025 share resources and infrastructure while maintaining distinct legal entities. Major donor-advised funds like Schwab Charitable, DonorsTrust, and Bradley Impact Fund support organizations involved in both initiatives, creating multiple channels for coordinated activity.

The sophistication of these organizational networks demonstrates careful attention to legal structure and operational efficiency. By maintaining separate organizations while sharing leadership and resources, these groups have created a robust infrastructure for coordinating activities across multiple entities. The overlapping membership between the Only Citizens Vote Coalition and Project 2025 reveals not just shared goals, but shared mechanisms for achieving them through interlocking organizational networks and funding channels.

This architectural framework shows how modern political organizations can maintain distinct legal identities while operating as part of larger, coordinated networks. Through careful structuring of leadership positions, funding flows, and organizational relationships, these initiatives have created multiple pathways for resource sharing and strategic alignment while preserving the independence of individual member organizations.

Private Conversations Reveal Russell Vought and Project 2025’s Plans to Transform the Federal Government

Newly revealed videos of Russell Vought, obtained by ProPublica, offer a stark glimpse into the mindset of Project 2025’s chief architect. Speaking to private audiences in 2023 and 2024, the former Trump budget chief outlined his vision for fundamentally restructuring the federal bureaucracy through what he characterizes as necessary “trauma.”

“When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains,” Vought told his audience, describing his intended impact on career civil servants. His specific target in this instance was the Environmental Protection Agency, adding, “We want their funding to be shut down so that the EPA can’t do all of the rules against our energy industry because they have no bandwidth financially to do so.”

As the head of the Center for Renewing America, a Project 2025 supporter, Vought speaks with the certainty of a general planning a campaign. The Associated Press reports that he has characterized political opposition as “enemy fire that’s coming over the target” and urged allies to be “fearless at the point of attack,” describing his policy proposals as “battle plans.”

These martial analogies reflect Vought’s view of American politics as an existential struggle. In one of the newly revealed speeches, he painted an apocalyptic picture, claiming America is “in the late stages of a complete Marxist takeover… in which our adversaries already hold the weapons of the government apparatus, and they have aimed it at us.”

Beyond rhetoric, Vought has been methodically preparing for potential Republican victory in November. His team is drafting what the AP describes as a secret “180-Day Transition Playbook” to avoid the chaotic start that characterized the previous conservative presidency. “We are writing the actual regulations now,” Vought revealed in the 2024 speech.

The scope of Vought’s ambition becomes clear in Project 2025’s extensive blueprint. The 920-page document, which Vought helped shape, calls for dissolving the Department of Education, dismantling the Department of Homeland Security, and fundamentally restructuring how the federal government operates.

Vought’s approach to governance was forged during his tenure as Trump’s budget chief at the Office of Management and Budget. There, he demonstrated his willingness to push executive authority to its limits, redirecting billions in Pentagon funds to border wall construction after Congress refused to appropriate the money. He also played a central role in withholding military aid to Ukraine during Trump’s first term, an action that led to Trump’s first impeachment.

For Vought, independent government agencies represent an unconstitutional limitation on executive power. “The whole notion of independent agencies is anathema from the standpoint of the Constitution,” he declared in a recent Fox Business Network appearance. 

In preparation for potential implementation of his vision, Vought revealed in the 2023 speech that he has established what he describes as a “shadow” Office of Legal Counsel, designed to provide legal justification for expanded executive authority. The effort includes developing legal rationale for invoking the Insurrection Act, which would allow military deployment for domestic law enforcement. 

Should his plans not come to fruition, Vought has called for states to “create red-state sanctuaries” by “kicking out all the feds as much as they possibly can.” He defended January 6th defendants as “political prisoners,” saying federal agencies “are keeping political opponents in jail, and I think we need to be honest about that.”

The stark vision in these private talks reveals Project 2025 as more than transition planning. The conversations behind closed doors by key players is evidence of a detailed blueprint for dismantling governmental institutions through raw executive power, guided by a belief in divine mandate and an utter disregard for democratic principles.

[Vesper 29,015]

Election Threats Persist Four Years After Far-Right Extremists Stormed the US Capitol

Nearly four years after a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, political violence remains a persistent threat heading into another presidential election

https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2024-10-29/election-threats-persist-four-years-after-far-right-extremists-stormed-the-us-capitol

Pro-Trump protesters storm into the U.S. Capitol during a rally to contest the certification of the presidential election results in Washington, January 6, 2021. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

WASHINGTON (AP) — After the 2020 presidential election, thousands of Donald Trump’s most fervent supporters heeded his call to join a “wild” protest of his defeat. Following Trump's lies about a stolen election, hundreds of them stormed the U.S. Capitol under the banners of the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and other extremist groups and movements.

Many of those far-right networks have dissolved, splintered or receded from public view since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack. But the specter of election-related chaos hasn’t vanished with them. Political violence remains a persistent threat heading into the Nov. 5 election, experts warn.

Election officials have been inundated with threats, misinformation and the prospect of “ election denialist ″ organizations wreaking havoc. The FBI was investigating on Monday after fires destroyed hundreds of ballots inside drop boxes in Portland, Oregon, and in nearby Vancouver, Washington.

Trump has used social media to promote violent conspiracy theories that have become mainstream features of Republican politics. Many, including Trump himself, have tried to recast Capitol rioters as 1776-style patriots and political prisoners. Trump also has vowed to use the military to go after “enemies from within.”

Four years ago, most of the Trump supporters in the mob had no criminal record or any group affiliations beyond their shared allegiance to a president who exhorted them to “fight like hell.” That helps explain why it can be difficult for authorities to identify and ward off threats.

“It only takes one person to cause a lot of damage,” said American University professor Kurt Braddock, who studies extremism.

Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, said the extremists she monitors don’t seem to be fixated on this year's election — at least in their public chatter online. Many likely learned a lesson from the Capitol riot defendants who flooded social media with self-incriminating posts before, during and after the siege.

“We have no idea if there’s something going on in encrypted chats,” she added.

During this election cycle, Trump and his allies have stirred up anti-LGBTQ and anti-immigrant discourse in a way that galvanizes extremists, experts say. After Jan. 6, the Proud Boys staged protests at drag queen story hours. More recently, Springfield, Ohio, was overwhelmed with hoax bomb threats after Trump and running mate JD Vance amplified bogus, xenophobic rumors about Haitian immigrants in the city.

All manner of far-right conspiracy theories are spreading virtually unchecked on mainstream platforms, including a firehose of lies about the federal government’s response to hurricane-ravaged North Carolina, a swing state.

Trump and his allies often use his rallies as a platform for spewing racism and xenophobia, including one Sunday at New York’s Madison Square Garden that drew comparisons to a pro-Nazi rally in 1939. Vice President Kamala Harris said she believes Trump is a fascist after his former chief of staff, John Kelly, said the former president praised Adolf Hitler while in office.

Trump was struck in the ear by gunfire during one of two assassination attempts against him this year. He has accused Democrats of fostering a volatile political climate by accusing him of being a threat to democracy.

Beirich said it could be difficult for authorities to curb election-related threats “because it can happen all over the country.” She and other experts fear extremists will try to disrupt ballot counting, possibly in battleground states.

“It feels a bit like a calm before the storm,” she said.

Extremism experts are hardly alone in their fears: About 4 in 10 registered voters say they are “extremely” or “very” concerned about violent attempts to overturn the results of next month's election, according to a new poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Of the more than 1,500 defendants charged in the Jan. 6 attack, more than 200 have been linked to extremist groups or movements by federal authorities, according to an Associated Press review of court records.

That includes approximately 80 leaders, members or associates of the far-right Proud Boys and over 30 defendants linked to the anti-government Oath Keepers. Other groups, including the Groyper movement, have had smaller numbers of followers charged in federal court.

Four years ago, Trump told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” during his first debate against Democrat Joe Biden. Group leaders celebrated Trump's shout-out and eagerly joined the fray when Trump invited supporters to Washington for his “Stop the Steal” rally.

Today, some of the top leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers are serving prison terms of up to 22 years for violent plots to stop the peaceful transfer of presidential power from Trump to Biden.

Imprisoning the groups' national leaders left a void. For the Proud Boys, it was partially filled by local chapters that consider themselves autonomous and tend to promote more extreme ideologies, said Jared Holt, a senior research analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, which tracks online hate.

“Their organizational capabilities are greatly diminished from where they were in 2020,” Holt said. “There’s always the possibility that, in a post-election period, these groups will all of a sudden find the motivation to mobilize and start showing up at events. But they’ve been pretty docile this year.”

The Oath Keepers, which the Yale Law School-educated Stewart Rhodes founded in 2009, has withered since his arrest and incarceration.

“It was his baby, and no one has really stepped up to fill his void,” Holt said.

Dozens of Capitol rioters were followers of the anti-government Three Percenters movement or belonged to militia groups with names like the Gray Ghost Partisan Rangers, the Southern Indiana Patriots and the Patriot Boys of North Texas. The government's response to Jan. 6 seems to have placed a “huge damper” on militias, Beirich said.

“They don’t disappear," she said. “They might pop up somewhere else, but I have to say: Militias in the last year or so have been relatively inactive compared to earlier eras.”

Many other Jan. 6 rioters were inspired by QAnon, which centered on the baseless belief that Trump was secretly fighting a Satan-worshipping, child sex trafficking cabal of prominent Democrats and Hollywood elites. The self-described “QAnon Shaman” remains one of the most recognizable figures from the riot.

Mike Rothschild, author of “The Storm Is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything,” said the QAnon movement has evolved beyond its bizarre web of “riddles and codes.”

Twitter, Facebook and YouTube cracked down on QAnon after Jan. 6, driving believers to platforms like Telegram or Trump’s Truth Social. Rothschild said many of them flocked back to Twitter, now called X, after Elon Musk bought it. He believes QAnon adherents remain “extremely dangerous.”

“They’ve had four years to build up their anger and grievance,” he said.

[cosmicway 1,333]

15 hours ago, Vesper said:

free abortions?

The decision on what we do, as women, with our reproductive choices is OURS, fucking men do NOT control us.

it is OUR bodies, not yours

championing LGBTQism?

it is championing basic human rights

and it is OUR lives, we are free to love whomever we do, we do not give a fuck what you think in terms of your hate-filled desire for control over OUR lives

you are an open homophobic bigot and an open misogynist

you fundamental authoritarian religious types do NOT get to shove your fucked up religious-based hate down our throats

you lot always scream about 'freedom', when you are the most anti-freedom people in the advanced world

your idea of 'freedom' is 100 per cent control over any and all who disagree with you

you do NOT get to declare we are undeserving of the freedom to live our lives as we chose and as we are biologically fashioned

you can take your religous-based bigotry, misogyny and hate and shove it up your collective arses

 

By the way, the majority of Americans agree with ME, not you and your fucking christofash, woman-hating, non cis-het hating ilk over there.

 

your days of running the road, stepping on our necks, are OVER, be it your hatred for women, and/or queer folk, and/or people of colour, etc etc

those days of darkness are not coming back to stay

we have FAR more allies in the advanced world that you and your fellow travellers/traffickers-in-hate do

we are NEVER going back to the days of hate and suppression of our basic human rights

you lot will lose at the end of the day

your superstructures of brutal bigotry and suppression was always destined for the ash heap of history, no matter how long it has taken, no matter how long it takes moving forward

 

The arc of the moral universe will bend toward justice, dignity, and freedom if we pull it there, and pull it there we shall.

Abortion is not human right, to have another human killed.
Only under specific medical conditions.

Exhibitionism is also not human right.

That's what most people believe, including liberals who do not go over to Trump.
So all this favours Trump / other entities like him in other places.

[cosmicway 1,333]

New Tory leader, a right winger as well they say (what does it mean right winger in Tory terms ?).
I wonder what sort of people those are, to side with a party that was calling them "rivers of blood".
 

[Vesper 29,015]

58 minutes ago, cosmicway said:

Abortion is not human right, to have another human killed.
Only under specific medical conditions.

Exhibitionism is also not human right.

bullshit

the clear majority of Americans (when all American adults are added in to overall mix, including all ideologies, even hard RWers) support abortion being legal at least up until the 2nd trimester (and in many cases part of the 2nd trimester)

 it is not a human until it has all the pre-requisties of being a human (especially sentientness and viabilty)

potentiality does NOT equal reality, never has, never will

I have logically destroyed your arguments multiple times

also the vast majority support LGBTQ basic rights (like same-sex marriage, and non discrimination laws in employment, housing, etc)

also, fuck your homophobic stance that being LGBTQ is 'Exhibitionism'

your are an open homophobe and can sod right off

seriously, fuck off with your hate campaign against us LGBTQ folk

1 hour ago, cosmicway said:

That's what most people believe, including liberals who do not go over to Trump.

you are flat out lying when you claim even liberals/LWers who do not support Trump are against these two things (abortion up to a point in time of the preganacy and LGBTQ rights)

their support is in the 80s or even 90s (percentages, depending on what study you choose) for those two issues

and also, EVERY state has passed abortion rights state constitutional amendments when they have been on the ballot, post Dobbs

even in every deep red, RW Republican state that has voted so far on them

you are both a proven, open bigot and a proven liar

your opinions are odious on multiple subjects

and although you are entitled to your own opinions, your are not entitled to your false 'facts'

and you most certainly are NOT entitled to being immune from push-back against your bigotry and your lies

 

[cosmicway 1,333]

19 minutes ago, Vesper said:

bullshit

the clear majority of Americans (when all American adults are added in to overall mix, including all ideologies, even hard RWers) support abortion being legal at least up until the 2nd trimester (and in many cases part of the 2nd trimester)

 it is not a human until it has all the pre-requisties of being a human (especially sentientness and viabilty)

potentiality does NOT equal reality, never has, never will

I have logically destroyed your arguments multiple times

also the vast majority support LGBTQ basic rights (like same-sex marriage, and non discrimination laws in employment, housing, etc)

also, fuck your homophobic stance that being LGBTQ is 'Exhibitionism'

your are an open homophobe and can sod right off

seriously, fuck off with your hate campaign against us LGBTQ folk

you are flat out lying when you claim even liberals/LWers who do not support Trump are against these two things (abortion up to a point in time of the preganacy and LGBTQ rights)

their support is in the 80s or even 90s (percentages, depending on what study you choose) for those two issues

and also, EVERY state has passed abortion rights state constitutional amendments when they have been on the ballot, post Dobbs

even in every deep red, RW Republican state that has voted so far on them

you are both a proven, open bigot and a proven liar

your opinions are odious on multiple subjects

and although you are entitled to your own opinions, your are not entitled to your false 'facts'

and you most certainly are NOT entitled to being immune from push-back against your bigotry and your lies

 

Human life is from the point of inception.
Sometimes we agree to mercy killing if there are over riding medical circumstances.

LBGTQ exhibitionism is disliked by everybody.

[Vesper 29,015]

8 minutes ago, cosmicway said:

Human life is from the point of inception.
Sometimes we agree to mercy killing if there are over riding medical circumstances.

LBGTQ exhibitionism is disliked by everybody.

busllhit

that point of conception stance is religious stance, not scientif, and doesn't hold up to even a cursory logical rebuttal

and sod off with your trying to broad-brush smear the vast, vast majority of us LGBTQ folk over the actions of a tiny amount of our community

broad-brush attacks are some of the oldest forms of faulty debate, farv from limited to just LGBTQ

it's collective responsibilty and false guilt foisted upon the many because there are a few who do things you do not like

history is littered with this form of illegitimate demonisation

and pro-tip:

cis-het folk have commited orders of magnitude more 'exhibitionism' over the millennia than us LGBTQ folk have 

not only that, but cis-het folk have abused, tortured, and murdered us queer folk at staggeringly higher rates than we have done so going the other way

so often driven by your selective dodgy interpretations of your religions

'God is love' dismissed out of hand by hundreds of millions of christians, for example

shameful

[Vesper 29,015]

27 minutes ago, cosmicway said:

Human life is from the point of inception.

your own fellow Greek citizens disagree with you on balance, in terms of your fundamental law (although I am sure you will claim it is some'commie conspiracy' 🙄)

you are a bigot with misogynistic desires to control women's bodies

 

Abortion in Greece

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_Greece

Abortion in Greece has been fully legalized since 1986, when Law 1609/1986 was passed effective from 3 July 1986. Partial legalization of abortion in Greece was passed in Law 821 in 1978 that provided for the legal termination of a pregnancy, with no time limitation, in the event of a threat to the health or life of the woman.

This law also allowed for termination up to the 12th week of pregnancy due to psychiatric indications and to the 20th week due to fetal pathology.

Following the passage of the 1986 law, abortions can be performed on-demand in hospitals for women whose pregnancies have not exceeded 12 weeks.

In the case of rape or incest, an abortion can occur as late as 19 weeks, and as late as 24 weeks in the case of fetal abnormalities.

In case of inevitable risk to the life of the pregnant woman or a risk of serious and continuous damage to her physical or mental health, termination of pregnancy is legal any time before birth. Girls under the age of 18 must get written permission from a parent or guardian before being allowed an abortion.

Law 1609 also specifies that the abortion must be performed by a medical practitioner with a specialty in gynecology or obstetrics and with the assistance of an anesthesiologist; that the pregnant woman is informed of the consequences of terminating the pregnancy, including the state that the state can provide some protection for the mother and child, as well as other family planning topics; that the mother's health is examined prior to the abortion; and that the hospital or private clinic where the abortion is performed meets particular specifications.

snip

 

Greece has close to the same rate of abortion as we do here in Sweden

and higher than the US

 

[cosmicway 1,333]

38 minutes ago, Vesper said:

busllhit

that point of conception stance is religious stance, not scientif, and doesn't hold up to even a cursory logical rebuttal

and sod off with your trying to broad-brush smear the vast, vast majority of us LGBTQ folk over the actions of a tiny amount of our community

broad-brush attacks are some of the oldest forms of faulty debate, farv from limited to just LGBTQ

it's collective responsibilty and false guilt foisted upon the many because there are a few who do things you do not like

history is littered with this form of illegitimate demonisation

and pro-tip:

cis-het folk have commited orders of magnitude more 'exhibitionism' over the millennia than us LGBTQ folk have 

not only that, but cis-het folk have abused, tortured, and murdered us queer folk at staggeringly higher rates than we have done so going the other way

so often driven by your selective dodgy interpretations of your religions

'God is love' dismissed out of hand by hundreds of millions of christians, for example

shameful

How the blazes do yu know there is no life in the foetus ?
So the womb contains batteries to be activated later !
(that might be a religious stance)

Edited November 2 by cosmicway

[Vesper 29,015]

2 minutes ago, cosmicway said:

How the blazes do yu know there is no life in the foetus ?
So the womb contains batteries to be activated later !
(that might be a religious stance)

so simple

what makes a human a human is sentientness/consciousness

not religious-derived dogma

also, potentiality does not equal reality

you are potentially the PM of Greece

but until you actually obtain the office, you are NOT entitled to the rights and powers that come with the office

 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25160864/

Abstract

The newborn human infant is conscious at a minimal level. It is aware of its body, itself and to some extent of the outside world. It recognizes faces and vowels to which it has been exposed. It expresses emotions like joy. Functional magnetic resonance imaging of the newborn brain shows highest activity in the somatosensory, auditory, and visual cortex but less activity in association area and the prefrontal cortex as compared with adults. There is an incomplete default mode network which is assumed to be related to consciousness. Although the fetus reacts to pain, maternal speaking, etc., it is probably not aware of this due to the low oxygen level and sedation.

Assuming that consciousness is mainly localized in the cortex, consciousness cannot emerge before 24 gestational weeks when the thalamocortical connections from the sense organs are established. Thus the limit of legal abortion at 22-24 weeks in many countries makes sense. It should also be possible to withdraw or withhold life-saving therapy of extremely preterm infants, especially if they are severely brain-damaged. This may also apply to full-term infants with grade III hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, who show no signs of consciousness.

[Vesper 29,015]

@cosmicway

I will put it clearly.

Your personal religious beliefs do NOT trump womens' fundamental human rights to body automony and our agency to determine our own reproductive choices.

If you want interpretive, religiously-derived dogmatic supremacy to give you and your misogynistic ilk control over us females, go live in a shithole nation-state like the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan or the KSA.

 

[cosmicway 1,333]

18 minutes ago, Vesper said:

so simple

what makes a human a human is sentientness/consciousness

not religious-derived dogma

also, potentiality does not equal reality

you are potentially the PM of Greece

but until you actually obtain the office, you are NOT entitled to the rights and powers that come with the office

 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25160864/

Abstract

The newborn human infant is conscious at a minimal level. It is aware of its body, itself and to some extent of the outside world. It recognizes faces and vowels to which it has been exposed. It expresses emotions like joy. Functional magnetic resonance imaging of the newborn brain shows highest activity in the somatosensory, auditory, and visual cortex but less activity in association area and the prefrontal cortex as compared with adults. There is an incomplete default mode network which is assumed to be related to consciousness. Although the fetus reacts to pain, maternal speaking, etc., it is probably not aware of this due to the low oxygen level and sedation.

Assuming that consciousness is mainly localized in the cortex, consciousness cannot emerge before 24 gestational weeks when the thalamocortical connections from the sense organs are established. Thus the limit of legal abortion at 22-24 weeks in many countries makes sense. It should also be possible to withdraw or withhold life-saving therapy of extremely preterm infants, especially if they are severely brain-damaged. This may also apply to full-term infants with grade III hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, who show no signs of consciousness.

You can't communicate - later you don't remember
The first thing I remember is being taken down a stairway. The bannister was black, the walls were blue.
Must be the first memory.
Could have been the maternity hospital of Heraklion-Crete.
But has been demolished and there are modern buildings now, so I can't go there and check.
So before the staircase you say, just because I could not communicate I was not alive but an inanimate object.
This is rubbish.

Edited November 2 by cosmicway

[Vesper 29,015]

1 minute ago, cosmicway said:

You can't communicate - later you don't remember
The first thing I remember is being taken down a stairway. The bannister was black the walls were blue.
Must be the first memory.
Could have been the maternity hospital of Heraklion-Crete.
But has been demolished and there are modern buildings now, so I can't go there and check.
So before the staircase you say, just because I could not communicate I was not alive but an inanimate object.
This is rubbish.

in other words

you have nothing that could even remotely be considered a logical rebuttal

you have nothing of import to posit other than the same old repetitive gish gallop stew of religious-backed posturing and other assorted scrambled, incoherent rantings and ramblings

you are a control freak (a sign of actual insecurity and inherent weakness I might add), trying to 'big dick Willy' your way into a place of power over us that you will never again obtain

Never again, barring a cataclysmic destruction of modern human society in the advanced world.

My advice to you:

Invent time travel and take yourself back to times when the dark, magical thinking-derived wishes and power projections you so desire ran the road.

If not, mind your own fucking business, you have neither the right nor the power to reach into our lives and impose your twisted vision of control over other humans just because you wish it.

 

[cosmicway 1,333]

30 minutes ago, Vesper said:

in other words

you have nothing that could even remotely be considered a logical rebuttal

you have nothing of import to posit other than the same old repetitive gish gallop stew of religious-backed posturing and other assorted scrambled, incoherent rantings and ramblings

you are a control freak (a sign of actual insecurity and inherent weakness I might add), trying to 'big dick Willy' your way into a place of power over us that you will never again obtain

Never again, barring a cataclysmic destruction of modern human society in the advanced world.

My advice to you:

Invent time travel and take yourself back to times when the dark, magical thinking-derived wishes and power projections you so desire ran the road.

If not, mind your own fucking business, you have neither the right nor the power to reach into our lives and impose your twisted vision of control over other humans just because you wish it.

 

Killing foetuses is a crime.

[Vesper 29,015]

1 hour ago, cosmicway said:

Killing foetuses is a crime.

absolutely false in many cases, and in many nations (up to a certain time duration, delineated by the law)

including........................ GREECE (again, with time and circumstance legal provisions)

also, a shedload of abortions are done at pre-foetal stage (ie embryonic)

 

sorry, but we are not bending the knee to sky being-mandated claptrap that yelps and bays for tyranny and subjugation

 

[Vesper 29,015]

@cosmicway

The Greek tourism bureau should cut some adverts with you and market them to bible-banger christofash yank MAGA.

I am sure this loon would love to go on beach safari to Plaka or Orkos on Naxos: