WHAT ABOUT NATIONAL REVIEW

Conservative says it’s long past time for Democrats to fight back when Republicans cross the line
Sarah K. Burris
September 02, 2021

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy. 

(john smith williams / Shutterstock.com)

Conservative Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin lamented that when Republicans break the rules to get what they want, Democrats never hold them accountable.

Writing Thursday, Rubin cited House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and his ongoing attempts to bring down the Jan. 6 select committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol. She said that he has attempted to embody Donald Trump's behavior with bullying and threats in an ongoing attempt to obstruct the process.

"Now that the committee has sought phone records from telecom companies to examine the phone history of witnesses of Jan. 6, including members of Congress, McCarthy has threatened the companies in an attempt to keep them from complying," Rubin cited.

She went on to call it "intolerable," telling Democrats, including the White House, that it's time to hold this behavior accountable by referring it "to the House ethics committee, if not the Justice Department."

McCarthy obviously isn't the only one spouting threats. Rubin cited Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), who threatened "bloodshed" if Democrats win more "rigged" elections. "There's nothing I would dread doing more than having to pick up arms against a fellow American," he said.

While violent Republican hyperbole isn't unusual, after Jan. 6 there is an increased sense of fear for future acts of domestic terrorism.

"This advertisement for future violent insurrection is precisely the type of conduct from Republicans that defenders of democracy feared would become more regular," she wrote. "It would be bad enough for a private citizen to make such a statement; it is inexcusable from a member of Congress."

Past examples include Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) threatening to execute members of Congress and McCarthy joking about hitting Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) with the gavel. Then there's the bizarre case of Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), who attempted to enter Taliban-controlled Afghanistan with large amounts of cash, claiming he was going to "rescue American citizens." The U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan refused to allow him passage

"Mullin was outraged by the response, the officials said — threatening U.S. ambassador John Mark Pommersheim and embassy staff and demanding to know the name of staff members he was speaking with," the Post reported at the time. He then disappeared, leaving many concerned he attempted to enter Afghanistan alone. Rubin said it was "nuts" and called for him to be disciplined.

She argued that the behavior is indicative of a "MAGA mentality" that the former president has been using since the early days of his 2016 campaign.

"Disdain for law and order and reliance on extralegal actions and threats of violence are yet further signs that another Jan. 6 may indeed have been a dress rehearsal for further attacks on our democracy," she closed.

It puts President Joe Biden in an awkward position. Any attempt at accountability would appear partisan, but Rubin argued that at the very least he should encourage Congress to act on the "shameless thuggery" of the GOP.

Read the full column at the Washington Post.

BEHIND A BEZOS PAYWALL

Australia’s Victoria state advances ban on swastika display

A young boy carries a placard titled "No Nazis" during a demonstration in Melbourne on Dec. 4, 2017. Australia's Victoria state is drafting legislation that would make it the first in the country to ban the public display of Nazi symbols as local neo-Nazi activity increases. (James RossAAP Image via AP)

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s Victoria state is drafting legislation that would make it the first in the country to ban the public display of Nazi symbols as local neo-Nazi activity increases.

The proposed ban on Nazi symbols such as the swastika, except for educational or historical purposes, will be presented to parliament early next year, and appears certain to become law with opposition lawmakers expressing support.

The law was recommended by a parliamentary inquiry earlier this year that cited a recent rise in neo-Nazi activity in Australia’s second-most populous state.

“This announcement is a resounding triumph for the victims of the Holocaust, the survivors and our brave diggers (Australian soldiers) who died to vanquish the evil Third Reich regime, and a defeat of homegrown neo-Nazis who seek to keep Hitler’s legacy alive,” said Dvir Abramovich, chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission, a Jewish-Australian community organization.

Counter-terror intelligence chief Mike Burgess warned last month that Australians as young as 16 were being radicalized to support a white-power race war, and that half of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization’s most important domestic anti-terrorism cases now involve neo-Nazi cells and other ideologically motivated groups.

Burgess, director-general of ASIO, told media the shift in the national security threat away from religiously motivated terrorism was being fueled by disinformation surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and other global events.

THINK ULSTER PARAMILITARY

The civilian wing of the Republican Party has lost control of its paramilitary wing

Lindsay Beyerstein, Alternet
September 01, 2021

Armed "security" from Pacific Patriot Network arrives in Oregon 

(YouTube/Screenshot)

Recently, an exclusive Reuters report claimed the FBI has little evidence of a single overarching plot to overturn the election on January 6. The headline: "FBI finds scant evidence US Capitol attack was coordinated — sources." The story kicked off a self-serving game of telephone by right-wingers spinning an already threadbare dispatch into ever-more exculpatory narratives. Steve Bannon pronounced it a "massive win" while Republican Senate hopeful JD Vance tweeted, "Another narrative collapses." These strained readings of the report culminated in the bizarre Washington Examiner headline: "FBI confirms there was no insurrection."

In fact, the government has already uncovered far-reaching conspiracies to attack the Capitol and stop the certification of the election. It alleges that three major paramilitary groups — the Oath Keepers, The Proud Boys, and the Three Percenters — conspired within their own ranks to commit violence to keep Donald Trump in power. In addition to plotting within their own ranks, these groups reportedly coordinated with each other. The point that Reuters' anonymous sources were making was that there is as-yet little evidence these paramilitary operations were part of a single overarching plot orchestrated by a "civilian" leader, like Trump confidante and self-proclaimed dirty trickster Roger Stone. Maybe the paramilitaries acted on their own. This is a truly terrifying possibility given it would indicate the civilian wing of the Republican Party has finally lost control of the party's paramilitary wing.

Members and associates of the Oath Keepers militia have already pleaded guilty to conspiring to disrupt the certification of the election, and many others are working their way through the courts on similar charges. The government alleges extensive coordination among the Oath Keepers in the run-up to January 6 and ongoing communication with their leader while they stormed the Capitol. Multiple Proud Boys have also been charged with conspiracy and other serious offenses stemming from the assault on the Capitol. The government alleges, and independent media reports confirm, that teams of Oath Keepers and Proud Boys were in the vanguard of the assault on the Capitol.

Moreover, all three paramilitary groups were an integral part of the Trumpist "Stop the Steal" movement that staged a series of violent protests to intimidate election officials in swing states, cement the myth of voter fraud, legitimize the Trump team's frivolous legal challenges and radicalize supporters. "Stop the Steal" had an established M.O. by January 6: besiege public officials and attempt to bully them into certifying the contest for Trump based on wild allegations of voter fraud and the ever-present threat of violence.

There's no question that the civilian architects of "Stop the Steal" wanted to intimidate the lawmakers certifying the election. Organizer Ali Alexander explained his plan was to put "maximum pressure" on the lawmakers in a bid to coerce the GOP representatives they had not been able to lobby to join their cause. "If they [certify the election], everyone can guess what me and 500,000 others will do to that building," Alexander tweeted on Dec. 30. "1776 is *always* an option""

"I want to hear a huge shout-out for Enrique and the Proud Boys right now," "Stop the Steal" organizer Cindy Chafian commanded the crowd gathered in Washington on January 5 on the eve of the certification of the election. Chafian went on to thank the Oath Keepers, the Three Percenters and other paramilitary groups as unsung heroes. "I'm tired of the left telling us we can't talk about them," Chafian said.

Chafian was referring to Enrique Tarrio, the supreme leader of the Proud Boys, who had been scheduled to speak at the gathering, but found himself unable to attend because he'd been arrested two days earlier for burning a Black Lives Matter flag at a previous "Stop the Steal" rally in Washington. Chafian's fellow speaker, Cordie Williams thundered that, "Enrique is in jail right now for burning a flag that bastardizes everything we stand for, it makes me sick."

The "Stop the Steal" slogan was coined by Stone in 2016 and revived by his protegé Ali Alexander to transmute lies about election fraud into incandescent rage that it hoped to harness to keep Donald Trump in power. "'Stop the Steal' is a highly coordinated partisan political operation intent on bringing together conspiracy theorists, militias, hate groups and Trump supporters to attack the integrity of our election," Ben Decker, the CEO and founder of Memetica, a digital investigations consultancy, told CNN in November of 2020.

As the votes were being counted, Alexander organized a series of armed, violent protests in swing states geared at intimidating state election officials. The Oath Keepers provided security for "Stop the Steal" organizers, including Stone. The Proud Boys turned out in force to brutalize counter-protesters and even organized their own protest at the home of United States Senator Marco Rubio to pressure him not to certify. Stone addressed the crowd by speaker phone.

Tarrio and other high-ranking Proud Boys were so close to Stone they were allowed to post to his social media accounts. Stone was even kicked off instagram for his ties to the Proud Boys. Stone was so accustomed to surrounding himself with Proud Boys that The Daily Beast proclaimed the neo-fascist street brawlers "Roger Stone's Personal Army" in 2019.

Stone and Alexander's longstanding relationships with the paramilitaries are tantalizing circumstantial evidence, but hard proof that they or any "civilian" ordered shock troops to attack the Capitol remains elusive.

Stone and Alexander like to cast themselves as skilled operatives very much in control, even as they deny responsibility for the violence swirling around them. But if Reuters' sources are correct, they paint a very different picture: That Stone, Alexander and all their Republican allies and enablers are ineffectual dupes who have lost control of the toxic forces they sought to command.

Unhinged threats against nurses and school boards rage on as mainstream GOP stands by

Jay Bookman, Georgia Recorder
September 02, 2021

Stock photography of an angry white man yelling. (Shutterstock)

In a press conference at the state Capitol this week, Georgia's public health commissioner condemned a campaign of bullying, intimidation and threats directed at health care workers attempting to improve the state's abysmal vaccination record against COVID- 19.

This article was originally published at Georgia Recorder

“Many of our line workers are receiving threats, are receiving hostile emails, harassing emails," Dr. Kathleen Toomey said. “That's something that has happened to me early on. Maybe it comes with the territory of someone in my position, but it shouldn't be happening to those nurses who are working in the field to try to keep this state safe."

According to Toomey, the harassment has become so threatening that one mobile vaccination effort in north Georgia had to be shut down entirely. “Aside from feeling threatened themselves, staff realized no one would want to come to that location for a vaccination under those circumstances, so they packed up and left," Toomey's spokeswoman, Nancy Nydam, later explained.

Think about that: These people are not only refusing to get vaccinated themselves — and by doing so facilitating the spread of this deadly virus — they are using harassment and intimidation to try to prevent other people from getting life-saving vaccination. That's outrageous. Yet later in that same press conference, when Gov. Brian Kemp had the chance to strongly condemn such behavior and promise that it would not be tolerated, that it would be investigated aggressively by law enforcement and prosecuted, he did not meet the moment, issuing only a mild call for “unity."

A few months earlier, at the very spot in the Capitol where Toomey and Kemp stood, Gabe Sterling of the Georgia secretary of state's office had been far more courageous. State and local elections workers were being threatened, harassed and intimidated by people who bought into false claims by Donald Trump that the election had been stolen from him, Sterling said, and it was up to leaders to intervene.

“You need to step up and say this … stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence," Sterling said, addressing Trump directly. “Someone's going to get hurt, someone's going to get shot, someone's going to get killed, and it's not right."

As we know, Trump did not condemn the violence, and people did get killed.

We're also seeing similar threats of violence directed at school boards around the country, both over mask mandates and the manufactured controversy over “critical race theory." Again, the idea seems to be that what cannot be won at the ballot box or through debate can and should be won through physical intimidation, even violence. In Pennsylvania, to cite just one of many examples, a GOP candidate for county executive bragged in a campaign video that he would confront the local school board over its mask mandate not with facts or data, but with “20 strong men."

“I'm going to speak to the school board, and I'm going to give them an option: They can leave or they can be removed," Steve Lynch said.

Not surprisingly, Lynch is a Trump supporter who attended the January 6 rally that ended in an assault on our nation's Capitol. Instead of an act of shame, that attempted coup is increasingly being described by Republicans such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia as an heroic act of patriotism, with the attackers cast as champions of freedom.

In North Carolina over the weekend, U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn told a campaign rally that if he knew where those arrested in the coup attempt were being imprisoned, he might try to “bust them out." He also told the crowd that the 2020 elections had been stolen from Republicans, and “if our election systems continue to be rigged and continue to be stolen, then it's going to lead to one place — and it's bloodshed."

These are people who have been told for decades that they have an inherent right to rule this country, that if they are losing election after election it is only because those elections are rigged against them, and that they have not just the right but the obligation to turn to violence to correct that injustice.

You could argue that this is only the lunatic fringe of the GOP, but we have seen too many times how yesterday's GOP lunatic fringe becomes tomorrow's GOP mainstream. And the people who might be able to rein it all back in remain in ominous silence.


Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook and Twitter.

'Vanilla ISIS' white nationalists are starting to sound 'very similar to the Taliban': CNN national security analyst

Bob Brigham
September 01, 2021

Southerners rally for succession, photo via the League of the South Facebook page.

White nationalists were called out on CNN on Wednesday after a shocking report that white supremacists were citing the Taliban as a model for successfully taking over a country.

For analysis, CNN's Anderson Cooper interviewed Harvard professor and CNN national security analyst Juliette Kayyem.

"We used to joke in our gallows humor...the radicalization of the right we used to call 'Vanilla ISIS' — in other words it was just about radicalization," she explained. "What we have to remember is they're really focused on an image of America — that they don't like this America, the white supremacist groups and right-wing groups."

She said the white supremacists were opposed to "a diverse America one in which women are equal, one in which there is diversity." She said it "sounds very similar to the Taliban."

"And so there is a nexus in terms of both the international sentiment of a radicalization or a sort of fascism that we see in the terrorist groups, but that's then repeated by the members of Congress, as we've heard recently sort of radicalizing and talking about violence," she said. "And, of course, the right-wing media machine."

 

White supremacist praise of the Taliban takeover concerns US officials


By Geneva Sands, CNN
Wed September 1, 2021

(CNN)As the United States-backed government in Afghanistan fell to the Taliban and US troops raced to leave the country, White supremacist and anti-government extremists have expressed admiration for what the Taliban accomplished, a worrying development for US officials who have been grappling with the threat of domestic violent extremism.
That praise has also been coupled with a wave of anti-refugee sentiment from far-right groups, as the US and others rushed to evacuate tens of thousands of people from Afghanistan by the Biden administration's August 31 deadline.

Several concerning trends have emerged in recent weeks on online platforms commonly used by anti-government, White supremacist and other domestic violent extremist groups, including "framing the activities of the Taliban as a success," and a model for those who believe in the need for a civil war in the US, the head of the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Intelligence and Analysis, John Cohen, said on a call Friday with local and state law enforcement, obtained by CNN.

Cohen said on the call that DHS has also analyzed discussions centering on "the great replacement concept" a conspiracy theory that immigrants, in this case the relocation of Afghans to the US, would lead to a loss of control and authority by White Americans.

"There are concerns that those narratives may incite violent activities directed at immigrant communities, certain faith communities, or even those who are relocated to the United States," he added.

Far-right extremist communities have been invigorated by the events in Afghanistan, "whether by their desire to emulate the Taliban or increasingly violent rhetoric about 'invasions' by displaced Afghans," according to recent analysis from SITE Intelligence Group, an American non-governmental organization that tracks online activity of White supremacist and jihadist organizations.

Some people are commending the Taliban's takeover as "a lesson in love for the homeland, for freedom, and for religion," SITE said in its weekly bulletin on far-right extremists.

Neo-Nazi and violent accelerationists -- who hope to provoke what they see as an inevitable race war, which would lead to a Whites-only state -- in North America and Europe are praising the Taliban for its anti-Semitism, homophobia, and severe restrictions on women's freedom, SITE found.

For example, a quote taken from the Proud Boy to Fascist Pipeline Telegram channel, said: "These farmers and minimally trained men fought to take back their nation back from globohomo. They took back their government, installed their national religion as law, and executed dissenters ... If white men in the west had the same courage as the Taliban, we would not be ruled by Jews currently," SITE found.

"Globohomo" is a derogatory word used to insult "globalists," the term used by conspiracy promoters to describe their enemy (the evil global elite who control the media, finance, political system etc), according to SITE.

For months, US officials have warned that domestic violent extremism is the greatest threat to the homeland, pointing to the January 6 attack at the US Capitol as a stark illustration of the potential for violence that can occur when conspiracy theories and false narratives flourish.

A significant part of the current threat environment comes from individuals who are influenced by what they see online, Cohen told CNN in an interview last month.
At this time, Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism, is not seeing any observed credible threats, or mobilization of online extremist activity, but is concerned that the current online rhetoric highlights ideological concerns and possible threats to public safety, said Joanna Mendelson, associate director of the center.

Extremists often take current events and weave them into their own narrative and worldview, said Mendelson, which is what is taking place in the aftermath of the withdrawal from Afghanistan and amid the humanitarian and military crisis.
"They're taking the same kind of core tropes and themes, and kind of bigoted views of the world, and injecting them into this current event," Mendelson told CNN.

There has been a lot of Islamophobia and xenophobia echoed by White supremacists and anti-Muslim activists, claiming that public safety and national security is threatened because they see refugees through a stereotypical lens as being dangerous criminals or terrorists, according to Mendelson.

A core conspiracy guiding White supremacist ideology is the "the great replacement," the belief that ultimately, the White race is facing its ultimate extinction, she said.
There is also "almost this infatuation and admiration" of the Taliban, Mendelson said, pointing to the notion that an under-equipped insurgent group could successfully defeat a global power.

"The fact that the Taliban at the end of the day could claim victory over such a world power is something that White supremacists are taking note of," she said.
Megan Squire, a professor of Computer Science at Elon University, who researches US-based domestic extremist groups, has seen three main Afghanistan-related trends emerge in platforms used by a range of far-right groups, such as White supremacists, neo-Nazis and Proud Boys-style forums.

The first narrative to emerge among the extreme far-right groups was "reveling in the humiliation" of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan as images emerged of Taliban fighters taking over city after city, along with US equipment left behind, Squire said, both celebrations of defeat and feelings humiliation as Americans.
When one goes deeper into the neo-Nazi groups, you see some celebration of the Taliban, usually related to extremely misogynistic or extremely anti-Semitic discussion, she added.

This type of cross-ideological praise has historical precedent, according to Squire, citing as an example, a meme that circulated in neo-Nazi communities during a particularly misogynist period about "white Sharia," the concept that women should be treated the way the Taliban treats women.

There have been recent examples of right-leaning groups supporting movement overseas that appear ideologically distant. For instance, earlier this summer, QAnon and Donald Trump-supporting online forums celebrated the deadly military coup in Myanmar and suggested the same should happen in the United States so Trump could be reinstated as President. CNN also spoke to followers of the former President in Ventura, California, in February who said they wanted to see a Myanmar-style coup happen here.
However, the most common narrative is around the idea that the US is "importing the Taliban" through the relocation of Afghans and that Afghan refugees are too different to become real citizens, according to Squire.

"It's really an anti-Muslim idea, anti-immigration idea," she said.
The Pentagon announced Monday that the last US military planes left Afghanistan, departing after weeks of chaotic and deadly evacuation efforts that were punctuated by the devastating suicide attack last Thursday that killed more than 170 people, in addition to the 13 US service members who were also killed.

Some of the Afghanistan narratives are focused on "the Taliban did it right" and that it should be a "lesson learned" for how we should operate in the US, a US law enforcement official told CNN about the rapid rise of the Taliban as the US withdrew troops.

"That's got us a little concerned," because it suggests an escalation in violence, the official added. For example, there were references to the fact that only 80,000 Taliban were able to defeat an Afghan army of several hundred thousand supported by the US, the official said.

As of February, the Afghan forces numbered 308,000 personnel, according to a United Nations Security Council report released in June -- well above the estimated number of armed Taliban fighters, which ranged from 58,000 to 100,000, CNN previously reported. Though number of Afghan forces has been considered by many to be inflated.

"There are some significant discussions," in which people are expressing support of what the Taliban has done and are looking at it as an example of what anti-government extremists should be doing in the US, the official said, adding that the reaction has been a "little bit surprising."

In Europe and the US, there has also been an "outpouring" of anti-refugee commentary from White nationalists and Neo-Nazis responding to the Taliban's takeover, SITE found.

Commentary on anonymous forums has been particularly violent, according to SITE, which found users discussing taking up arms, and in one case, threatening attacks on refugee assistance organizations in Florida.

The hateful rhetoric is similar to that seen amid Libyan and Syrian refugee waves in the 2010s, which paved the way for violent terrorist attacks in Christchurch and Pittsburgh, according to SITE.

Amid anti-immigrant sentiment, DHS officials have been bracing for whether Afghans themselves will be targeted once they land in the US and are resettled here, a DHS official previously told CNN.

"Will they be the potential target? Will Afghans themselves become targets?" the official said, noting the concern.

Joe Rogan shamed by public health scientist for pushing ivermectin to fans over vaccine after catching COVID
Brad Reed
September 01, 2021


Public health scientist Eric Feigl-Ding on Wednesday shamed podcast host Joe Rogan for continuing to push his fans to treat COVID-19 with ivermectin even as he's said in the past that many of them don't need to get vaccinated.

Feigl-Ding, who is currently a Senior Fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, used Rogan's recently revealed COVID-19 diagnosis to review some of his past statements about the virus.

"Rogan, who was rebuked by federal officials last spring for suggesting that young healthy people don't need vaccinations, now says that he started feeling sick after performing," he wrote on Twitter. "He pushed ivermectin (not proven to work) and for rescheduling his Nashville show, he says 'obviously nothing that I could control' -- ummm, yes you can, Joe Rogan."

Feigl-Ding then made a list of things that Rogan could have done to prevent himself from getting infected, including staying "masked indoors" and "telling people to vaccinate more forcefully."

Rogan explained in a video released Wednesday that he rushed to treat himself with as many drugs as possible after being diagnosed with COVID-19.

"We immediately threw the kitchen sink at it," he said. "Monoclonal antibodies, ivermectin, Z-Pak, prednisone."

Read Feigl-Ding's full thread here

Joe Rogan reveals he has COVID -- and took a 'kitchen sink' drug cocktail including ivermectin
Brad Reed
September 01, 2021

RIGHT WING Commentator Joe Rogan looks on during the UFC Fight Night event at Prudential Center on April 18, 2015, in Newark, New Jersey. - Alex Trautwig/Getty Images North America/TNS

Popular RIGHT WING  podcaster Joe Rogan revealed on Wednesday that he's come down with COVID-19 -- and he's taking a wide cocktail of drugs to treat it, including ivermectin.

Vice News reports that Rogan revealed his diagnosis in a video in which he appeared "exhausted."

In the video, Rogan explains how he rushed to treat himself with as many drugs as possible.

"We immediately threw the kitchen sink at it," he said. "Monoclonal antibodies, ivermectin, Z-Pak, prednisone."

In fact, ivermectin is not recommended as a treatment for COVID-19, as science officials say there has not been nearly enough research into its effectiveness as a treatment.

All the same, Rogan said the cocktails left him feeling "like a new man," writes Vice.

Vice's report notes that Rogan has drawn criticism for hosting several vaccine skeptics on his podcast, including notorious anti-vaxxer Alex Berenson.

Rogan has also told fans he'll pay for their fake vaccination cards if they are dealing with businesses that have vaccine passport systems.

"If someone has an ideological or physiological reason for not getting vaccinated," he said, "I don't want to force them to get vaccinated to see a f*cking stupid comedy show."

Editorial: Passing up approved coronavirus vaccine for horse dewormer is nuts

2021/9/2 ©St. Louis Post-Dispatch

For months after the coronavirus vaccines were released, many Americans who refused to take them cited the fact that they were initially approved by federal regulators on an emergency fast-track basis rather than under the normal drug-approval process. That fear, never fully valid to begin with, should have finally been laid to rest by the recent full, formal approval of the first of the vaccines.

Yet even now, significant numbers of vaccine-skeptical people are instead turning to a drug meant to deworm horses, which has repeatedly failed to protect against the coronavirus in clinical trials and in some cases has proven dangerous. This should stand as further evidence (if any was still needed) that the anti-vaccination movement lacks any credibility whatsoever and should have no sway over public policy.

Ivermectin has been effectively used in small doses in humans to treat parasites, but human trials haven’t produced evidence it’s effective on the coronavirus. That hasn’t stopped people from buying up the human version to the point that pharmacies are running out. Worse, some are turning to veterinary supply sources for the livestock version — which is not merely ineffective against the coronavirus but dangerous. Ivermectin-related calls to poison control centers have risen fivefold in recent months.

It’s reminiscent of the controversy over hydroxychloroquine, a malaria medication that, like ivermectin, has shown scant actual evidence of effectiveness against the coronavirus and has potentially dangerous side effects. But with backing and misinformation from right-wing media and some Republican politicians (including, in the case of hydroxychloroquine, former President Donald Trump), too many Americans are viewing these unproven, unlikely remedies as silver bullets, while continuing to reject vaccines that have been proven for months to be both highly effective and safe.

A vial of Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine. - TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/TNS

It’s not putting it too strongly to suggest that this is madness. What social, political or psychological factors would cause large numbers of otherwise rational Americans to reject vaccines that have earned provisional and now formal approval by the Food and Drug Administration, while embracing drugs that the FDA and other experts warn are ineffective and dangerous? It’s almost as if, having staked out the bizarre position that vaccine acceptance is a violation of conservatism, those adherents are suddenly recognizing that the crisis is real and lunging for whatever vaccine alternative they can find.

Declaring an entire segment of society to be so outside the pale that their voices should be deliberately ignored isn’t something that should be done lightly — but on the issue of these snake-oil alternatives, the time has come. Vaccine mandates, vaccine passports and other proposed policies are centered on the simple scientific fact that vaccines work. Like all public policies, these ideas must be open to debate. But there should be no seat at that table for those who pass up medically approved vaccines in favor of a horse dewormer.

Doctors warn horse-dewormer can be lethal, so why are people taking it for COVID-19?

Allison R. Donahue, Michigan Advance
September 02, 2021

Young man deworming a bay horse with a dewormer paste. 

(Shutterstock.com)

Medication that is usually used to treat parasites has become the latest COVID-19 conspiracy treatment, but doctors are trying to fight misinformation, stressing it isn't proven to help treat the virus. In fact, physicians warn the drug can have detrimental side effects in humans if taken incorrectly.

Medical professionals have studied whether or not ivermectin, which is usually used to treat head lice or parasitic worms in humans, horses and other livestock, could treat or prevent COVID-19, but current research isn't showing that it works.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has pleaded that people do not take ivermectin for COVID-19 purposes.

“Using any treatment for COVID-19 that's not approved or authorized by the FDA, unless part of a clinical trial, can cause serious harm," the FDA said in March. “The FDA has received multiple reports of patients who have required medical support and been hospitalized after self-medicating with ivermectin intended for horses."

But as Michigan experiences another surge of COVID-19 cases, there has been an uptick in poison control calls regarding ivermectin and patients looking to be prescribed the drug. As of Wednesday, Michigan has reported a total of 951,192 COVID-19 cases and 20,347 deaths.

Dr. Rob Davidson, a West Michigan emergency room physician and Committee to Protect Health Care executive director, said on MSNBC Wednesday that he had a patient who refused the COVID vaccine, but asked for ivermectin instead.

“These are the kinds of lines that the former president [Donald Trump] threw out there and people latched onto it and just haven't let go," Davidson said.

However, in Ohio, a judge last week ordered the West Chester Hospital, near Cincinnati, to provide a man with 30 mg of ivermectin daily for three weeks after his wife filed a lawsuit against the hospital.

People who haven't been able to find a doctor who will prescribe them ivermectin for COVID-19 have been buying the anti-parasitic medication intended for horses from farm supply stores.

The FDA strongly urges against this, noting “ivermectin preparations for animals are very different from those approved for humans."

These stores are trying to curb customers from buying ivermectin to self medicate by posting warnings that the drug is not safe for human use.

Potential side effects

Taking ivermectin for any reason other than its FDA-approved intended uses can cause mild to severe side effects, especially for those who are taking ivermectin intended for animals.

Dr. Farhan Bhatti, a family physician in Lansing and Michigan state lead for the Committee to Protect Health Care, said mild side effects include headache, dizziness, vomiting and fatigue. More severe side effects include liver disease, blurred vision, changes in heart rate, swelling or low blood pressure.

Matthew Sims, director of infectious disease research at Beaumont Health in Royal Oak, said the side effects from ivermectin could actually worsen COVID-19 symptoms, especially the long lasting COVID-19 symptoms, like heart damage.

“People can die from taking ivermectin if they overdose on it," Bhatti said.

Overdosing is more common for people who are taking ivermectin intended for livestock because the formulations, additives and the dose are likely not the same as what is prescribed to humans, said Sims.

Uptick in ivermectin-related poison control calls

According to Varun Vohra, director of the Michigan Poison and Drug Information Center, there has been a small increase in ivermectin-related calls to the poison control hotline, though it's significantly less than other states.

States with higher volumes of ivermectin-related poison control calls are Alabama, Mississippi and Texas.

In 2021, poison control centers across the U.S. received three times the amount of calls for human exposures to ivermectin in January compared to the pre-pandemic baseline, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

That number spiked again in July when ivermectin calls increased to five times the amount compared to the baseline.

Vohra said in May Michigan saw a spike of about 10 calls, compared to about three calls a month prior to the pandemic.

“It's waned since then, but we're going to continue to monitor because this is hitting the news cycle pretty hard, so that could stimulate an increase in use among people who start hearing about it," Vohra said.

Sims said he has seen an increase of patients who have asked to be prescribed ivermectin, but he is following FDA and CDC guidance.

“I've heard people shouting we're trying to keep it away … because it's an old drug and relatively cheap," Sims said. “If it can be proven to work, we'll use it, but I'm not going to assume it's going to work."

Doctors who are recommending unproven treatments to patients could be at risk of losing their license for “unprofessional conduct."

“If physicians are recommending harmful treatments to people, that's a violation of their Hippocratic Oath. And if patients are directly being harmed by something that doctors are telling them to do, then doctors could have their license threatened in court," Bhatti said.

Most doctors are sticking to what's been scientifically proven to work: vaccinations, masking and social distancing, Sims said.

Where did the ivermectin rumor begin?

A myriad of coronavirus-related conspiracy theories have made their way around the internet, many of which have been disproven by physicians, and are often hard to track where they originated.

While ivermectin has been a hot topic in the news recently, it has actually been floated as a COVID-19 treatment since the early days of the pandemic in the U.S.

In April 2020, shortly after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced Michigan's first COVID-19 case in early March, the state put out a press release warning people not to take ivermectin for COVID-19. The release pointed to a pre-publication paper for the journal Antiviral Research as the source of the attention for this drug.

However, that study was only done in a petri dish and was not tested on animals or humans.

Despite that, many right-wing media figures, such as Joe Rogan, Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, promoted the drug without any scientific backing, reaching a large audience of people who are anti-mask and anti-vaccine. There also are a number of Facebook groups pushing ivermectin, as well as many posts in other social media.

Ivermectin is not the first “miracle drug" that has made headlines during the pandemic. Hydroxychloroquine, convalescent plasma and antiviral drugs lopinavir-ritonavir were also pushed to help treat COVID-19, but studies showed they were ineffective.

“Nobody has a problem with repurposing a drug to use to treat COVID," Sims said. “There's so many different products that have been tried that way, but most of them have not helped."


Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan Demas for questions: info@michiganadvance.com. Follow Michigan Advance on Facebook and Twitter.

JA!

Is Trump the new Hitler? Here's what a historian of Nazi Germany has to say
History News Network
September 01, 2021

Hitler and Trump

A Sharpie-drawn mustache embellishes Trump's face on a poster. A Hitler caricature wears a MAGA hat. Satirists ridicule both of them. Academics ponder strong man analogies. A new Netflix documentary pairs the Donald and the Führer. The similarities between the flamboyant leaders in critics' crosshairs, however, blind us to a crucial contrast. Hitler, a charismatic leader, was also an astute politician. Trump channels his supporters' mood, but lacks even the rudimentary ability to govern.

The differences begin with the different messages by which each attracted masses of followers. Hitler muted his rabid racism and promised to combat the Great Depression with massive government investment in social welfare, rearmament, and infrastructure. The Trumpist GOP rejects big government and relies on white nationalism to sustain loyalists' allegiance.

Adolf Hitler built a mass following by promoting economic and civic revival, not, at first, antisemitism. Trump, an incompetent would-be Führer, has released white rage and, even if he were to vanish, his loyalists would remain on high alert. It's comforting to associate good governance with liberal democracy. A backward glance, however, alerts us to an inconvenient history.

To us, the virulence of Hitler's Judeophobia is clear. It was not so obvious, however, to most of the approximately 30 percent of Germans who voted Nazi in the run up to Hitler's takeover. A decade earlier, when Hitler was in prison after the ludicrous failure of his "beer hall" coup, he fulminated in Mein Kampf about Jews as "bloodsuckers," "tapeworms" and "parasites," who should "be exterminated." His delusional hatred roused party radicals, but hardly anyone read Mein Kampf, and the Nazi Party remained on the crackpot fringe. But after the 1928 election yielded only three percent of the vote, Hitler rebranded his public self from rebellious upstart to responsible leader.

The "new" Hitler raged against Bolshevism, the victors of World War I, and corrupt politicians whom he blamed for Germany's ruin. He still celebrated "Aryan" superiority. But he mentioned Jews less often in public, and, when he did, his language resembled Henry Ford's complaints about "destructive" Jewish influence in the media, the stock market, and the Soviet Union. In Germany, where Jews constituted less than one percent of the population, "the Jewish question" seemed like a side issue. More relevant to most voters were the Nazi Party positions on hot-button issues that were popularized by more than 100 mass-market pamphlets. In addition to these rather humdrum works, other genres, like young adult fiction, campfire poetry, a humor magazine, songbooks, and picture albums, contributed to the party's mainstream sheen in the early 1930s.

To voters who boarded the Nazi bandwagon after 1928, Hitler presented himself as a capable outsider who pledged to end legislative gridlock, repel Bolshevism, fight joblessness with massive government expenditures, and expand the pensions and universal health care that Germans took for granted. As unemployment climbed to 30 percent between 1928 and 1932, voters went to the polls in five national elections and propelled the Nazi Party from ninth to first place. In January 1933 the German President appointed Hitler chancellor. When arsonists set the Reichstag building ablaze, Josef Goebbels launched a propaganda blitz about a Bolshevik revolution that justified mass arrests of Marxist leaders. In mid-March, after more repression, tighter censorship, and negotiations with non-Nazi conservatives, the Reichstag voted to give Hitler dictatorial power.

Hitler consolidated Nazi power through bureaucratic incursions, media censorship, state-sanctioned concentration camps, banishment of rival parties and labor unions, and, in June 1934, the murder of violence-prone dissidents in his own party. By late 1936 investment in government programs (including rearmament) revived the economy, and diplomatic successes boosted national pride. Only then, when his popularity was secure, did Hitler escalate the so-called "legal" persecution of Jewish Germans through stringent educational and occupational quotas, "Aryan oversight" of Jewish-owned businesses, and prohibitions against "mixed-race" marriages.

In short, Nazi voters mostly got what they wanted -- "Aryan" revival and a robust social state. Few of them anticipated the November 1938 pogrom and the exterminatory war against "international Jewry" that gathered force with the invasion of Poland in 1939.

Hitler ended the depression in Germany with the kinds of federal programs the GOP rejects. Although Trump promises "our historic, patriotic, and beautiful movement to Make America Great Again has only just begun," his performance as president casts doubt on his ability to deliver material support to his core following, white families plagued by low wages, rising rents, and food scarcity.

President Trump defaulted on his economic populism and, instead, delivered a tax bonanza for the super-rich and bungled his response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the thrall of super-wealthy donors, most Republicans in Congress reject Biden's infrastructure program, which is supported by 83% of Americans, as well as higher corporate taxes to pay for it, supported by 66 percent of Americans. Without alternative proposals, Trump can only goad GOP lawmakers, "don't let the Radical Left play you for weak fools and losers!" After failing to overturn Biden's election by bullying government officials and inciting mob violence, Trump falls back on promises to protect the status of white Christian Americans.

When Trump tells cheering crowds, "you are the real people, you are the people who built this country," he endorses the systemic racism that remains in place a half a century after civil rights legislation threatened to dismantle it. While denouncing federal regulation and social as well as infrastructure programs, Trump revs up white victimhood and relies on emotional gratification to sustain the loyalty of his aggrieved low-wage and middle class base.

Biden bets that voters will reward his administration's effective COVID response, rapid economic recovery, and financial support for low-income families, which disproportionately benefits red state voters. Unlike citizens in mono-ethnic Germany, whose political loyalties were influenced by class, white Americans' allegiance is increasingly shaped by racial identity. And historians note that white Southern voters tend to value preserving their privilege above federal programs like Medicaid expansion that benefit everyone. The Biden administration delivers effective governance. The Trumpist GOP, increasingly, is rooted in systemic racism dating back 400 years. Given the Constitution's skewed distribution of power and a Supreme Court likely to uphold voter suppression, elections will be close.

Hitler built a mass following by promoting economic and civic revival, not the anti-Semitism that power would allow him to indulge. Trump, an incompetent would-be Führer, has released white rage. If he were to vanish, his loyalists would remain on high alert.


Claudia Koonz is the Peabody Family Professor emerita in the Department of History at Duke University and author of The Nazi Conscience (Harvard University Press).

This article was originally published at History News Network

'As if natural selection was trying to make a point': Conservative maps out conservatives who denied COVID -- then died from it

Alex Henderson, AlterNet
August 31, 2021

Shutterstock

No matter how high the death toll from COVID-19 climbs, countless MAGA Republicans — from governors and members of Congress to right-wing media figures — continue to engage in forms of coronavirus denialism, whether it's promoting anti-vaxxer conspiracy theories or railing against social distancing and protective face masks. Never Trump conservative Charlie Sykes, in his August 30 column for The Bulwark, laments that even as well-known MAGA Republicans die from COVID-19 left and right, coronavirus deniers can't be swayed.

"Not even the COVID deaths of 637,000 Americans have shaken the walls of invincible ignorance, selfishness and narcissism," Sykes writes.

The 637,000 figure that Sykes quotes in his column has since increased. According to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, 4.5 million people have died from COVID-19 worldwide — and that includes more than 639,000 in the United States.

Referring to the right-wing media figures who downplayed the severity of COVID-19 only to be killed by it, Sykes asks, "Why does this keep happening?" And the conservative columnist offers plenty of examples, including Phil Valentine and Jimmy DeYoung (a Christian fundamentalist) in Tennessee and Dick Farell in Florida

Sykes notes that Valentine played an anti-vaxxer parody of the Beatles' "Taxman" on his show titled "Vaxman" — before COVID-19 killed him at the age of 61. Farell used to slam Dr. Anthony Fauci as a "power-tripping lying freak" for promoting vaccination then became sick with COVID-19 and died.

DeYoung promoted anti-vaxxer conspiracy theories on his show (which catered to a White evangelical audience) and died from COVID-19 in mid-August. And another anti-vaxxer Sykes mentions in his column is the late Florida-based radio host Marc Bernier, who called himself Mr. Anti-Vax and tweeted, on July 30, that government officials who encouraged vaccination for COVID-19 were "acting like Nazis." Bernier died from COVID-19 in late August.

Sykes also mentions H. Scott Apley, who was a member of the Texas Republican Party's board and a member of Dickinson, Texas' city council. Apley promoted a mask burning event in Cincinnati, and he died from COVID-19 on August 4 at the age of 45.

"This is not an occasion for schadenfreude, because each story is a tragedy," Sykes writes. "Families have been devastated, children left without parents. But they raise the nagging question: why has this happened so often? Of course, it's possible these are just random anecdotes, but they feel like a dark and tragic pattern — almost as if natural selection was trying very hard to make a point."

According to Sykes, "The through-line of each of these stories is that the victims were not merely skeptics — they were active spreaders of disinformation. They also may have been spreaders of something worse. They were influencers who mocked medical experts, flouted their defiance, and encouraged their listeners and followers — and the people around them — to do the same. And they are not alone. Similar messages continue to broadcast daily on talk radio and broadcast on Fox News."

REAL CRIMINAL'S CAPITALI$M

Six Germans charged over spectacular Dresden museum heist
Agence France-Presse
September 02, 2021

One of the pieces stolen from the Green Vault, which has one 

of the biggest collections of baroque treasures in Europe 

(AFP/Juergen Karpinski)

German prosecutors said Thursday they have charged six men over a spectacular heist in 2019 when more than a dozen diamond-encrusted artefacts worth over 100 million euros were snatched from a state museum.

The suspects, all German nationals aged between 22 and 27 years old, are accused of aggravated gang robbery and aggravated arson.

Two among them had previously been convicted for stealing in 2017 a 100-kilogramme (220-pound) gold coin from Berlin's Bode Museum -- another robbery that shook up Germany.

Armed with a loaded revolver and an automatic-loading gun with a silencer, the men allegedly broke into the Green Vault museum in Dresden in the early hours of November 25, 2019, making away with 21 pieces of jewellery encrusted with more than 4,300 diamonds.

The insured value of the pieces reached 113.8 million euros ($135 million), said prosecutors in a statement.

None of the stolen items have been recovered.

The suspects are believed to have started a fire to cut off the power supply for street lighting around the museum just before the burglary.

And as they were making their getaway to Berlin, they allegedly set fire to an Audi S6 in an underground carpark, leaving a total of 61 vehicles damaged.

The property damages are estimated at more than a million euros.

- Clan link -

Investigators are still searching for the stolen objects, added the prosecutors.

Dresden's Royal Palace, which runs the museum, had said the items taken were priceless 18th-century jewellery and other valuables from the collection of the Saxon ruler August the Strong.

They included a sword whose hilt is encrusted with nine large and 770 smaller diamonds, and a shoulderpiece which contains the famous 49-carat Dresden white diamond, Dresden's Royal Palace said.

Prosecutors did not name the suspects.

But during their manhunt, police had confirmed they are members of the so-called "Remmo clan", a family of Arab origin notorious for ties to organised crime.

In recent years, such "clans" of primarily Middle Eastern origin have become a particular focus for police in Berlin.

At a separate trial in Berlin Thursday, another member of the Remmo family confessed to the robbery of an armoured money carrier in the German capital.

Together with four other suspects, Muhamed Remmo, 31, had dressed up as a trash collector for the heist outside a bank branch in western Berlin's shopping avenue Kurfuerstendamm.

He threatened security guards with a blank pistol and sprayed teargas at them while his accomplices loaded their getaway car with more than 600,000 euros in cash.

Investigators in 2019 targeted the Remmos with the seizure of 77 properties worth a total of 9.3 million euros, charging that they were purchased with the proceeds of various crimes, including a 2014 bank robbery.

Police have also found no trace of the Canadian coin taken in the March 2017 robbery at the Bode Museum, located close to Chancellor Angela Merkel's Berlin apartment.

The "Big Maple Leaf", one of five minted in 2007, is considered the world's second-largest gold coin after the one-tonne Australian Kangaroo issued in 2012.

IT GOT MELTED DOWN IN A HURRY

A third of global tree species threatened with extinction
Agence France-Presse
September 01, 2021

Baobab Trees In Madagascar (ALINE RANAIVOSON AFP/File)

Around a third of all the world's tree species are threatened with extinction, according to a global index published Wednesday, warning that climate change could tip some forests into ecosystem collapse.

Land clearance for farming -- both crops and livestock -- and logging are by far the biggest threats to trees, the State of the World's Trees report said, adding that climate change was also "having a clearly measurable impact".

The study looked at the risks to 58,497 tree species worldwide and found that 30 percent (17,500) are threatened with extinction, with a further seven percent listed as "possibly threatened".

For 21 percent of species there was not enough data for an evaluation, and just over 40 percent were listed as "not threatened".

Well-known trees such as magnolias were among the most threatened, while oaks, maples and ebonies were also deemed at risk.

Some 142 tree species were found to be extinct, and more than 440 have fewer than 50 individual trees in the wild.

"Many tree species are on the brink of extinction, some represented by one last living individual," said Jean-Christophe Vie, Director General of Fondation Franklinia, in a foreword to the report.
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He said it was "shocking" that deforestation rates remain so high, given the crucial role that trees play -- providing habitat for a huge proportion of the world's animals and plants, slowing climate change by absorbing carbon, and providing ingredients for medicines.

One third of tree species threatened Cléa PÉCULIER AFP

Brazil, home to large swathes of Amazon rainforest that is increasingly under threat from massive agricultural expansion and logging, has the most tree species (8,847) and also the largest number of threatened trees (1,788).

But the highest proportion of threatened species was found to be in tropical Africa, especially in islands like Madagascar and Mauritius where 59 percent and 57 percent of tree species respectively are threatened.

- Ecosystem collapse -

The report also raised concerns that the destruction can cascade across ecosystems affecting communities of trees.

Notable examples include the loss of a million hectares of spruce species in Alaska and some ten million hectares of lodgepole pine in British Columbia.

Forest ecosystems can collapse when they are subjected to multiple stressors -- like fire, logging and the break up of habitat -- that have the potential to interact and "drive abrupt ecological change", the report said.

"However, climate change has the potential to become the principal driver of collapse in most, if not all, types of forest ecosystem," said Adrian Newton, Director of Conservation Ecology at Bournemouth University, in the report.

The impacts of a changing climate and severe weather -- listed as a direct threat to more than a thousand species -- include shifting habitats, increasing storms and floods, as well as more fires, pests and disease.

- 'Huge opportunity' -

The five-year assessment was coordinated by Botanic Gardens Conservation International and specialists from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which holds a key biodiversity conference in France this week.

Vie said that the strong focus on restoring forests to mitigate the effects of climate change was a "huge opportunity to change this dire picture".

Brazil has the highest number of threatened tree species

 Florian PLAUCHEUR AFP/File

But he said it was crucial to make sure the right trees are planted in the right places.

"Tree species that have evolved over millions of years, adapting to changing climates, can no longer survive the onslaught of human threats," said Vie.

"How short-sighted are we to allow the loss of tree species on which global society is ecologically and economically dependent. If we could only learn to respect trees, undoubtedly many environmental challenges would greatly benefit."

© 2021 AFP