American Hindus deeply divided over Trump, Biden

HINDUISM IS ARYAN SUPREMACY
PTI | Oct 21, 2020, 

Donald Tump and Joe Biden

HOUSTON: The political divide between Hindu supporters of US President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden is getting deeper with the presidential election less than two weeks away and the starting of early polls in some states.

In a sign of the growing political prominence of Hindus in America, the Trump and Biden campaigns are wooing this religious minority community like never before. Hinduism is the fourth largest faith in the US, representing approximately one per cent of the US population in 2016.

The Biden campaign in September launched 'Hindu Americans for Biden' in September, while the Trump campaign in August announced the formation of the 'Hindu Voices for Trump' as part of their efforts to attract the over two million members of the religious community in the US.

A virtual debate held on Sunday between American Hindu supporters of Trump and Biden brought the message home that there is a clear political divide among the community in the US.

While one group alleged that Biden "panders to Muslims", the other accused Trump of being a "racist".

The webinar titled '2020 Presidential Election: A debate on the American Hindu issues' was co-sponsored by the Hindu American Foundation, the Hindu American PAC, the HinduPACT and the HinduVote.

During the debate, Biden supporters alluded to the Obama-Biden administration's lifting of nuclear sanctions against India as a demonstration of Biden's pro-India stance, while Trump supporters brought to light how Biden as the senate foreign relations committee chair passed a bill pumping billions of dollars for improving Pakistan's economy, which ended up funding the Pakistan military and promoting terrorism across the border.

Trump supporters underlined that Pakistan honoured Biden with 'Hilal-i-Pakistan', the country's second-highest civil award. On the other hand, Trump, they said, named Pakistan a 'country of particular concern' for supporting cross-border terrorism and drastically cut the financial aid to the nation. They recalled that Hindus had asked the Obama administration to cut aid to Pakistan, but it was not done.

A much more direct question to the Biden team was about the party platform having sections on American Muslims, American Jewish, but "nothing clear cut about American Hindu community, not even a mention".

In response, the Biden team said the Democratic Party as a policy recognises "cultural communities" and not religious communities, thus, its policy towards "Indian American community" is on the platform.

Utsav Chakrabarty, a Trump supporter, said he had written at least six letters to the Democratic Party leadership, asking them to post a policy paper on American Hindus, but he never got any response. A Democratic Party operative, he claimed, told him that unless he made a contribution to the Biden campaign, nothing would change.

Tushar Dayagude, another Trump supporter, echoed Chakrabarty's assertion that campaign contribution was a must for Hindus to have their cause recognised in the Biden team.
Dayagude opined that Hindu members contributing to Trump's campaign was the reason Biden campaign ignored the community.

In this context, Srilekha Palle, a Trump supporter from Fairfox, Virginia, disputed the assertion that American Hindus largely donated only to the Trump campaign. Palle pointed out that a prominent Houston-based American Hindu raised USD 3.5 million from the community members in single night for Biden campaign.

Trump supporters said the Democrats have always "pandered to Muslims" and its support to the Hindu community was nothing more than a "tokenism".

To drive home their point, they cited the Diwali celebration at the White House in 2012 when Obama was the president. The supporters pointed out that the Democrats invited the Islamic Society of North America as one of the sponsors of the event and provided a platform to its spokesperson to speak at the Hindu religious festival.

Buttressing the point further, Trump supporters showed on the screen an "insensitive" image tweeted by Meena Harris, niece of Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris. The tweet has now been deleted by Meena, 35, who is a lawyer and a children's book author.
Meena had tweeted the image to greet Hindus on the ongoing festival of 'Navratri', which celebrates women power and the triumph of good over evil. In the image, Kamala Harris, depicted as goddess Durga, was seen killing President Trump, who was depicted as buffalo demon 'Mahishasura'. The image also showed Biden as a lion, the 'vahana' (vehicle) of the goddess.

Chakrabarty said the only outreach the Biden team has made to Hindus is this kind of "tokenism, which at best is cheap and hurtful and at its worst, creates Hindu phobia".

The Trump team at the debate also included Jay Kansara, a former director of governmental relations for the Hindu American Foundation in Washington DC, who played a key role in the Howdy Modi summit last year.

The Biden team panelists were Nish Acharya, who was Director of Innovation & Entrepreneurship in the Obama administration; and Niki Shah, a Hindu community organiser who worked closely on Hindu initiatives for former president Obama's faith-based council.
Asked why the Trump campaign did not respond to a questionnaire sent by the Hindu American Foundation PAC, while the Biden campaign did, Kansara said he found the questionnaire heavily biased against Trump and, therefore, advised the Trump campaign against responding to it.

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=HINDUISM+IS+FASCISM+

USA Today breaks tradition by endorsing Biden
'This is not normal election, and these are not normal times,' editorial board explains in first-ever support of candidate
News Service09:28 October 21, 2020

Democratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden
Photograph: TOM BRENNER


USA Today, one of the largest US newspapers, announced its first-ever presidential endorsement Tuesday to Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

"Four years ago, the Editorial Board — an ideologically and demographically diverse group of journalists that is separate from the news staff and operates by consensus — broke with tradition and took sides in the presidential race for the first time since USA TODAY was founded in 1982," the editorial board said in a statement.

"We urged readers not to vote for [US President] Donald Trump, calling the Republican nominee unfit for office because he lacked the 'temperament, knowledge, steadiness and honesty that America needs from its presidents.'"

However, after 38-years, the board decided to support the election of Biden "unanimously" in the Nov. 3 elections, saying he offers "a shaken nation a harbor of calm and competence."

"If this were a choice between two capable major party nominees who happened to have opposing ideas, we wouldn’t choose sides. Different voters have different concerns. But this is not a normal election, and these are not normal times," the board wrote.

"This year, character, competence and credibility are on the ballot. Given Trump’s refusal to guarantee a peaceful transfer of power if he loses, so, too, is the future of America's democracy."

Claiming that the endorsement will not have any effect on news reports, the board concluded: "We may never endorse a presidential nominee again. In fact, we hope we'll never have to. "

Study of chess player performance over many years suggests brain peaks at age 35

by Bob Yirka , Medical Xpress

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

A trio of researchers from Institut Polytechnique Paris, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat München, and Erasmus University has found evidence suggesting that cognitive abilities in humans peak at age 35 and begin to decline after age 45. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Anthony Strittmatter, Uwe Sunde and Dainis Zegners describe their study of chess player skill over a span of 125 years and what they found.

Prior research has shown that cognitive skills for most people begin to decline sometime during mid-life and continue to deteriorate for the rest of a person's life. In this new effort, the researchers have found a novel way to show such decline—by measuring the skills of professional chess players.

The work involved analyzing player performance over approximately 24,000 professional chess matches from the years 1890 to 2014. In all, they studied the moves of 4,294 players, 20 of whom were world champions—the other 4,274 were their opponents. The researchers' goal was to follow the skill level of each player over many years of their life to gage their skill level over time. They did this by comparing chess moves made by each player against optimal moves suggested by a computerized chess engine over the course of their career.

They found that performance for most players increased rapidly until they reached the age of 20—after that, their performance improvements slowed until reaching a peak at approximately age 35. Most of the players were able to maintain their peak playing abilities for approximately 10 years—after age 45, skills began to deteriorate. The researchers describe the data for a given individual as representing a "hump-shaped curve."

The researchers also found that player performance across the board has increased over the past 125 years, particularly among young people. They noted that performance rose sharply in the 1990s as chess enthusiasts gained access to computerized chess games, providing them with more accomplished opponents. They found that experience levels for most players rose, as well—in the modern age, professional chess players play a lot more matches than did those a century ago.


Researchers investigate how important intelligence and practice are in chess
More information: Anthony Strittmatter et al. Life cycle patterns of cognitive performance over the long run, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2020).

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2006653117
Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences



© 2020 Science X Network

Drinking green tea and coffee daily linked to lower death risk in people with diabetes

by British Medical Journal

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Drinking plenty of both green tea and coffee is linked to a lower risk of dying from any cause among people with type 2 diabetes, suggests research published in the online journal BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care.

Drinking 4 or more daily cups of green tea plus 2 or more of coffee was associated with a 63% lower risk of death over a period of around 5 years, the findings show.

People with type 2 diabetes are more prone to circulatory diseases, dementia, cancer, and bone fractures. And despite an increasing number of effective drugs, lifestyle modifications, such as exercise and diet, remain a cornerstone of treatment.

Previously published research suggests that regularly drinking green tea and coffee may be beneficial for health because of the various bioactive compounds these beverages contain.

But few of these studies have been carried out in people with diabetes. The researchers therefore decided to explore the potential impact of green tea and coffee, separately and combined, on the risk of death among people with the condition.

They tracked the health of 4923 Japanese people (2790 men, 2133 women) with type 2 diabetes (average age 66) for an average of just over 5 years.

All of them had been enrolled in The Fukuoka Diabetes Registry, a multicentre prospective study looking at the effect of drug treatments and lifestyle on the lifespan of patients with type 2 diabetes.

They each filled in a 58-item food and drink questionnaire, which included questions on how much green tea and coffee they drank every day. And they provided background information on lifestyle factors, such as regular exercise, smoking, alcohol consumption and nightly hours of sleep.

Measurements of height, weight and blood pressure were also taken, as were blood and urine samples to check for potential underlying risk factors.

Some 607 of the participants didn't drink green tea; 1143 drank up to a cup a day; 1384 drank 2-3 cups; and 1784 drank 4 or more. Nearly 1000 (994) of the participants didn't drink coffee; 1306 drank up to 1 cup daily; 963 drank a cup every day; while 1660 drank 2 or more cups.


During the monitoring period, 309 people (218 men, 91 women) died. The main causes of death were cancer (114) and cardiovascular disease (76).

Compared with those who drank neither beverage, those who drank one or both had lower odds of dying from any cause, with the lowest odds associated with drinking higher quantities of both green tea and coffee.

Drinking up to 1 cup of green tea every day was associated with 15% lower odds of death; while drinking 2-3 cups was associated with 27% lower odds. Getting through 4 or more daily cups was associated with 40% lower odds.

Among coffee drinkers, up to 1 daily cup was associated with 12% lower odds; while 1 cup a day was associated with 19% lower odds. And 2 or more cups was associated with 41% lower odds.

The risk of death was even lower for those who drank both green tea and coffee every day: 51% lower for 2-3 cups of green tea plus 2 or more of coffee; 58% lower for 4 or more cups of green tea plus 1 cup of coffee every day; and 63% lower for a combination of 4 or more cups of green tea and 2 or more cups of coffee every day.

This is an observational study, and as such, can't establish cause. And the researchers point to several caveats, including the reliance on subjective assessments of the quantities of green tea and coffee drunk.

Nor was any information gathered on other potentially influential factors, such as household income and educational attainment. And the green tea available in Japan may not be the same as that found elsewhere, they add.

The biology behind these observations isn't fully understood, explain the researchers. Green tea contains several antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds, including phenols and theanine, as well as caffeine.

Coffee also contains numerous bioactive components, including phenols. As well as its potentially harmful effects on the circulatory system, caffeine is thought to alter insulin production and sensitivity.

"This prospective cohort study demonstrated that greater consumption of green tea and coffee was significantly associated with reduced all-cause mortality: the effects may be additive," the researchers conclude.


Explore furtherCoffee linked to lower body fat in women
More information: Additive effects of green tea and coffee on all-cause mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: the Fukuoka Diabetes Registry, BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care, DOI: 10.1136/bmjdrc-2020-001252
Provided by British Medical Journal
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Replacing asphalt with forest-type plants at daycare centers found to strengthen immune defenses in children

by Bob Yirka , Medical Xpress

A daycare yard during the intervention. Credit: Marja Roslund

A team of researchers affiliated with multiple institutions in Finland and one in the Czech Republic has found that replacing asphalt in play areas at daycare centers with natural vegetation can lead to stronger immune defenses in the children at the centers. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the group describes removing asphalt from play areas at several daycare centers and replacing it with forest floor vegetation, and what they found when they tested the children who attended the centers.

Prior research has suggested that one of the reasons for increased rates of autoimmune diseases in many parts of the world, such as inflammatory bowel disease, type 1 diabetes, eczema and asthma, is lack of exposure to elements that push children's immune systems to respond. The thinking is that repeated exposure to natural elements like dust, dirt and pollen while young strengthens the immune system. Researchers have noted that children living in some urban areas are most at risk of missing out on such exposure and that might explain their higher rates of autoimmune diseases. In this new effort, the researchers sought to test this theory by changing the environment in which such children play—playgrounds at daycare centers in urban areas.

To learn more about the possible impact of exposure to natural elements, the researchers received permission to replace the asphalt at several daycare centers in two of Finland's major cities—and then to replace it with turf dug up from forest areas. In addition to forest floor sod, the researchers also brought forest shrubs, bushes and mosses. The children in the centers were then encouraged to play in the upgraded areas during their time outdoors. The children were all tested prior to installation of the natural material and then again 28 days afterward, for immune system markers.

The researchers acknowledge that their test group was small—just 75 children were participants—but suggest their striking results warranted publication of their findings. In addition to a large (a third higher than a control group) increase in skin biome, the researchers found positive changes to proteins and cells (regulatory T cells and anti-inflammatory cytokines) that have been found to be present in people with a more robust immune system. They suggest more work needs to be done to prove the benefits of such a change in the childhood environment and then to push for changes to be made.


Children who take steroids at increased risk for diabetes, high blood pressure, blood clots
More information: Marja I. Roslund et al. Biodiversity intervention enhances immune regulation and health-associated commensal microbiota among daycare children, Science Advances (2020). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aba2578
Journal information: Science Advances

Evidence review confirms CDC guidance about infectivity of novel coronavirus

by Oregon Health & Science University

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

A review of dozens of studies by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University and Oregon State University suggests that people may shed virus for prolonged periods, but those with mild or no symptoms may be infectious for no more than about 10 days. People who are severely ill from COVID-19 may be infectious for as long as 20 days.

That's in line with guidance provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, confirming recommendations for the length of time people should isolate following infection with SARS-CoV-2.

The review published in the journal Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.

"Detection of viral RNA may not correlate with infectivity since available viral culture data suggests shorter durations of shedding of viable virus," the authors write."Additional data is needed to determine the duration of shedding of viable virus and the implications for risk of transmission."

Researchers decided to conduct the review to gain more information on transmission and to help inform infection control practices, said co-author Monica Sikka, M.D., assistant professor of medicine (infectious diseases) in the OHSU School of Medicine.

"Even though people can shed virus for a prolonged period of time, the studies we reviewed indicated that live virus, which may predict infectiousness, was only detected up to nine days in people who had mild symptoms," Sikka said.

The researchers identified 77 studies worldwide, including 59 that had been peer-reviewed, and combed through the results. All studies reported assessments of viral shedding using standard methods to identify the virus by replicating it through a process called polymerase chain reaction, or PCR.

"Although PCR positivity can be prolonged, culture data suggests that virus viability is typically shorter in duration," the authors write.


Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

More information: Lauren Fontana et al, Understanding Viral Shedding of SARS-CoV-2: Review of Current Literature, Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology (2020). 

DOI: 10.1017/ice.2020.1273

Journal information: Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology

Provided by Oregon Health & Science University

GOP fundraiser Broidy pleads guilty to conspiracy

Case is related to a lobbying campaign on behalf of foreign billionaire

David Karp/Associated Press File photo:

 Elliott Broidy faces a statutory maximum of five years in prison, but will likely face a lower term of imprisonment when he is sentenced. The judge set Broidy’s sentencing for Feb. 12.

By CNN.COM WIRE SERVICE
PUBLISHED:  October 21, 2020 at 4:10 a.m.
By Kara Scannell | CNN

Elliott Broidy, a top Republican fundraiser involved in President Donald Trump’s 2016 inaugural committee, pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of conspiracy relating to a secret lobbying campaign to influence the Trump administration on behalf of a foreign billionaire in exchange for millions of dollars.

Broidy was charged earlier this month with conspiracy for failing to register and disclose his role in a lobbying effort aimed at stopping a criminal investigation into massive fraud at a Malaysian investment fund and advocating for the removal of a Chinese billionaire living in the US.

Broidy, who pleaded guilty in a cooperation deal with prosecutors, will forfeit $6.6 million.

According to Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, of the US District Court for the District of Columbia, who read portions of the plea agreement during a virtual hearing, prosecutors at sentencing intend to raise Broidy’s lobbying efforts involving a Middle Eastern client in “its alleged support of terrorist activities.”

Broidy faces a statutory maximum of five years in prison, but will likely face a lower term of imprisonment when he is sentenced. The judge set Broidy’s sentencing for February 12.

Prosecutors alleged in court filings that Broidy and his cohorts’ goal was to “make millions of dollars by leveraging Broidy’s access to and perceived influence with the President and his administration.” Broidy was paid $9 million, a prosecutor said, and had an additional arrangement for a success fee as high as $75 million, which he never received. Broidy said he paid one of his co-conspirators $2.4 million.

As part of the scheme Broidy sought to arrange a golf game between the Malaysian prime minister and Trump to enable the Malaysian leader to bring up the criminal investigation, according to prosecutors. No golf game ever occurred but the prime minister did meet with Trump, the prosecutor said. Broidy also met with Trump and falsely told his co-conspirators that he had raised the investigation with Trump, prosecutors added.

In addition, prosecutors said Broidy drafted a memo to the US attorney general to try seek the removal of the Chinese billionaire living in the US. That lobbying effort was also not successful.

Pirro’s Attempt To Rehab Kyle Rittenhouse Fails Bigly

POSTED BY ELLEN -7835.60PC ON OCTOBER 11, 2020 · FLAG

http://httpswshounds.us//www.ne/pirro_attempt_rehab_kyle_rittenhouse_fails_bigly_101120

Jeanine Pirro interviewed the mother of Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse last night to recast the guy charged with murdering two Black Lives Matter protesters as a young man who only went to Kenosha to clean up graffiti (with an assault weapon). But Rittenhouse’s mother gave up the game later in the interview.

The highly edited interview was Pirro’s and Fox’s latest effort to turn the alleged murderer into one of the world’s best good Samaritans.

Pirro introduced the interview by saying that a video, which I assume is the same one released by Rittenhouse’s “defamation attorney,” tells a story of “a young boy who tried to help people that night and was forced to defend himself.”

I can’t blame mother Wendy Rittenhouse for wanting to help her son. But Pirro, a former prosecutor, should have had at least some interest in getting at all the facts. Instead, her goal was clearly to help acquit Rittenhouse before trial.

Rittenhouse portrayed her 17 year-old son as “a typical young man, young boy” who “enjoyed helping people out” as a “police explorer,” “fire cadet,” and “lifeguard.” Pirro followed up with, “Tell us about his experience or training in as a medic.”

Rittenouse justified her son traveling across state lines from Illinois to Wisconsin, with an assault-style rifle that was illegal for him to be carrying in either state by saying, “He works in Kenosha” and “has family in Kenosha” and that he was in Kenosha that day to clean up graffiti.

Pirro bought it. She never questioned why the young man showed up with the weapon or why his mother either allowed him to have it or didn’t know about it. In fact, Pirro never mentioned the weapon at all.

“I knew that he was there [in Kenosha] to clean up the graffiti,” Wendy Rittenhouse said. “He wanted to help and that’s all he was there to do.”

However Pirro’s next line of questioning brought out an answer that suggested the Rittenhouse idea of “help” was not merely cleaning up graffiti. I don’t know whether Pirro couldn’t resist her inner prosecutor or her inner fact finder or if she thought Wendy Rittenhouse would have a good answer. But for whatever reason, it happened like this:

“Had he said anything about the riots, Wendy, that had gone on a few nights before?” Pirro asked.

That’s when Rittenhouse revealed a deep hostility toward the protesters:

RITTENHOUSE: No one should have been at the riots. It’s a horrible thing what happened and it’s just hard on everybody. No one should have been there. I mean, if they were gonna protest, they should have been at it peacefully.

PIRRO: Should Kyle have been there, Wendy?

Oops. Rittenhouse realized she had just boxed herself in. Her mouth opened and closed. Then her lawyer cut in to say, “I think like any mother, Judge, it is very, very tough for Wendy.”

The video cut away to a new question from Pirro, which changed the subject.

But not before we got a good look at Rittenhouse’s face. It strongly suggested she knew there was more than graffiti on Kyle's mind when he showed up at the demonstration.

Look, I have no idea whether Kyle Rittenhouse is guilty or innocent of the charges against him. He deserves a fair trial and the presumption of innocence like any other defendant.

But I know a journalistic crime when I see one.

You can watch it below, from the October 10, 2020 Justice with Judge Jeanine. If that video should become unavailable, you can watch the full episode here. The interview takes place about three-quarters into the show.

 

Evo Morales Celebrates Victory of MAS Party, Says He Will Return to Bolivia

OCT 20, 2020

Evo Morales said Monday he will return to Bolivia following his MAS party’s stunning victory in Sunday’s election. The former president, overthrown in a coup last year and replaced by a far-right government, did not specify a timeline for his return. His handpicked successor, Luis Arce, celebrated his win early Monday.

President-elect Luis Arce: “We have recovered our soul. We have recovered the mysticism of this process. The people have made this possible with their discipline. We recovered this process of change for all.”

The election was postponed twice by the interim government of right-wing President Jeanine Áñez, who cited the pandemic. Protests rocked Bolivia for months ahead of the election, condemning Áñez for delaying the vote, as well as her government’s military and police violence against Indigenous communities and supporters of MAS. We’ll have more on the elections in Bolivia later in the broadcast.

DEMOCRACY NOW!

Far-Right Twitter Trolls Won’t Admit They Were Wrong About Killing of a “Patriot” in Denver

It was a reporter’s bodyguard, not an anti-fascist activist, who shot and killed a right-wing demonstrator who had assaulted him.

IF YOU ARE WHITE THEY DON'T SHOOT YOU


Police in Denver arrested a journalist's bodyguard on Saturday, moments after he shot and killed a right-wing demonstrator who struck him. Photo: Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images

Robert Mackey October 12 2020

HERE’S WHAT HAPPENED in Denver on Saturday: Lee Keltner, a right-wing demonstrator, was shot and killed after he assaulted Matthew Dolloff, a reporter’s bodyguard, who retaliated for a blow to the head and a squirt of pepper spray by firing a single gunshot from point-blank range.

Those details, and more evidence about the deadly encounter, gradually emerged in the hours and days after the shooting, but initial reports and reaction to the killing were shrouded in misinformation, much of it introduced by political partisans who jumped to conclusions about the gunman’s motives before all the facts were known.

The skirmish, which escalated to deadly violence in less than 10 seconds, unfolded in broad daylight, directly in front of witnesses outside the Denver Art Museum. One was a conservative demonstrator who caught the sound of the gunshot and the sight of the victim collapsing to the ground in distressing video. A second was a livestreamer who rushed to the scene with the police, capturing the gunman’s arrest. A third was a staff photographer for The Denver Post, whose startling, close-up images of the whole incident were online by the end of the day.


On Saturday in Denver, Lee Keltner, a right-wing demonstrator, approached Matthew Dolloff, a bodyguard for a local news station, and struck him in the face. Moments later, Keltner squirted pepper spray at Dolloff, who responded with deadly gunfire.

Photo: Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images


The moments before the shooting were also recorded on video by the journalist the guard was protecting, but that footage was not released until more than 72 hours had passed.

But far-right Twitter personalities, who thrive by providing their followers with fresh reasons to be outraged around the clock, do not wait all day to leap to conclusions about unfolding events. Within minutes of the shocking act of violence — which took place after a sparsely attended rally described as a “patriot muster” against “BLM, Antifa, and related Marxist associations” by the organizer, a former military contractor who survived the Benghazi attack — influential conservatives with hundreds of thousands of followers began to speculate that the gunman must have been an antifascist activist.

Just over an hour later, those same trolls flooded social networks with misinformation, amplifying a mistaken report from the Denver Post that the gunman was “a left-wing demonstrator.” That report, which was corrected later in the day, was apparently based on the account of one of the witnesses: Helen Richardson, the newspaper photographer who watched the shooting unfold through her viewfinder and had no way of knowing, based on what she saw, that Dolloff, who was not wearing a uniform or any form of visible identification, was in the middle of this charged situation for a very unusual reason — as an armed bodyguard for the man standing behind him, a journalist for a local news station who was also not wearing anything that made his role clear.

Before The Post corrected its report, popular far-right Twitter commentators with a combined audience in the millions shared it with their readers as if it was definitive proof that the killing of Keltner was both politically motivated and the work of an antifascist activist.

The viral spread of those false claims apparently alarmed the Denver Police Department, which had taken Dolloff into custody along with the journalist he was guarding and quickly determined that they were not left-wing protesters. Less than four hours after the shooting, the department tried to stem the tide of misinformation by tweeting an update on its investigation, in which it reported that, “the suspect is a private security guard with no affiliation with Antifa.”

The police also released the journalist Dolloff had been guarding, a reporter for Denver’s NBC affiliate, 9 News, who had been recording right-wing rallygoers and left-wing counter-protesters all afternoon.

The local news channel confirmed that it had made the unusual and ethically questionable decision to hire a security guard to accompany one of its staff members, a producer for its investigative unit, to film demonstrations by both the right-wing “patriots” and the left-wing counter-protesters who had gathered nearby. “Dolloff was contracted through Pinkerton by 9NEWS,” the station reported as part of its coverage of the fatal shooting. “It has been the practice of 9NEWS for a number of months to contract private security to accompany staff at protests.”

Three days after the shooting, on Tuesday, the news station updated its statement to say that the management “had directed that security guards accompanying our personnel not be armed. None of 9NEWS’ crew accompanied by Mr. Dolloff on Saturday were aware that he was armed.”

Pinkerton, a private security company with a long, checkered history — including a period as, effectively, Andrew Carnegie’s personal militia used to break up strikes — said in a statement on Monday that Dolloff was not directly employed by the firm but was dispatched by a subcontractor.

Even after the Denver police statement, several of the trolls, including Ian Miles Cheong, a Malaysian blogger with a big following among American conservatives, continued to pretend that anti-fascists were behind the shooting of Keltner. On Sunday, Cheong sarcastically invoked former Vice President Joe Biden’s description of antifa as an idea rather than a group in a caption for a video that showed the dead man at work making hats in 2012.

On Sunday, a leader of the pro-Trump youth movement Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk, also made the false claim. “A conservative was just gunned down in the streets by ANTIFA and not a single ‘mainstream’ news outlet has asked Joe Biden to condemn the organization he called ‘just an idea,'” Kirk tweeted to his 1.8 million followers. “We don’t have a media in this country anymore,” Kirk added. “We have activists posing as journalists.”

Kirk’s comment on the difference between journalism and activism is unintentionally ironic, given that many prominent right-wing activists posing as journalists on Twitter refused to retract their false claims that Dolloff was an antifascist gunman even after The Denver Post had corrected and explained the error in its report.

On Sunday afternoon, the police tried again to quash the rumors that continued to spread online. “Further investigation has revealed that, at the time of the shooting, the suspect was acting in a professional capacity as an armed security guard for a local media outlet, not a protest participant,” the Denver Police Department wrote on Twitter.

Rather than correcting their own false reports, however, several of the most influential Twitter conservatives, joined by 4chan trolls, began scouring the web for evidence that Dolloff was somehow secretly an antifa assassin.

Failing to find any such thing, they then moved the goalposts quite some distance, by treating scraps of evidence, gleaned from Twitter and Facebook accounts that appeared to be Dolloff’s, of his past support for Sen. Bernie Sanders and the Occupy Denver movement, and then acting as if that somehow proved that the killing was politically motivated.

Complicating evidence about Dolloff’s views available on those social-media accounts, like words of praise for the conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer, were ignored in the effort to make the case that he was a left-wing radical.

Like President Donald Trump, many of his online supporters have sought to delegitimize protests for racial justice and against fascism by amplifying acts of violence by anyone on the left and pretending that there is no difference between fringe extremists and the mainstream of the movements against police brutality and white supremacy. The frenzied search for evidence of Dolloff’s politics was part of that effort.

Lauren Boebert, a far-right Republican candidate for Congress who has embraced the deranged QAnon conspiracy theory popular in parts of Colorado, also ignored the police statement that Dolloff was a security guard, not a protester, when she tweeted on Sunday that the fatal shooting in Denver was an example of “the violence perpetrated in the streets by ANTIFA, BLM & other radical leftist groups.”

In fact, the visual evidence of what happened on Saturday in Denver appears to show something different and more complex than an attack by a man with left-wing politics on a man with the opposite views. The images seem to show that Keltner, who was wearing a T-shirt with a slogan that mocked the Black Lives Matter movement, initiated the skirmish with Dolloff, who responded by wildly escalating the violence, replying to a slap in the head by taking out his gun and firing a single, deadly shot.

As the speculation over the gunman’s unknown motives spiraled out of control online, The Denver Post released all 71 of the photographs Helen Richardson shot before, during and after the killing, along with metadata from her camera that provides the exact second each frame was created.

Taken together, Richardson’s photographs and video recorded during the incident by another witness show that Keltner first got into a heated confrontation with a counter-demonstrator in a “Black Guns Matter” shirt as he left the “patriot muster” in nearby Civic Center Park. That man was seen aggressively harassing several of the right-wing demonstrators near the exit to the rally.

After another conservative stepped in to separate the two men, Keltner, a 49-year-old Navy veteran who made cowboy hats, appeared to take exception to two other men who were observing the argument at close range: the reporter for Denver’s NBC affiliate, 9 News, and Dolloff, his bodyguard.

One of Richardson’s images shows Keltner moving away from the initial argument and pointing in the direction of Dolloff and the journalist he was guarding. In another frame, captured six seconds later, Keltner and Dolloff appear together for the first time, as the guard appears to use his hands to block the demonstrator from approaching the journalist.


The first image of Lee Keltner, a right-wing demonstrator with an American flag mask, encountering Matthew Dolloff, the bodyguard who killed him on Saturday in Denver, appears to show the guard holding him back from approaching the journalist he was hired to protect, in the blue shirt.
Photo: Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images


One second later, according to the metadata, after Keltner had hit Dolloff, the guard reached for the gun in his waistband. He then raised it and fired at Keltner, who raised his arm and released a burst of pepper spray in the same second.

What led Keltner to strike Dolloff in the head, hard enough to knock off his cap and sunglasses, remained unknown in the days after the shooting, but Richardson, the photojournalist, wrote on Instagram early Sunday morning that Dolloff escalated the encounter to shocking, deadly violence incredibly quickly. Richardson wrote: “the two exchanged heated words, the patriot hit the man in the face, then backed up to spray what looked like pepper spray at him. Literally in that split second the man who had gotten hit by the patriot pulled out a gun from his waistband and shot the patriot.”

“It isn’t clear who fired first,” Richardson added.

In the final seconds of video that showed the initial argument that preceded the shooting, recorded by a conservative who had just left the rally, the sound of the spray being released can be heard just before the gunshot rings out, and Keltner is seen collapsing to the pavement.

It was not until Tuesday evening that the video recorded by the News 9 journalist who was the closest witness to the incident was finally posted online by the station. That video, which starts with Keltner arguing with the man in the “Black Guns Matter” shirt, shows that he suddenly noticed that the confrontation was being filmed by the journalist on his phone. The video then shows that Keltner ordered the reporter to put his camera away, and when he did not comply, moved toward him. “Get the cameras out of here or I’m going to fuck you up,” Keltner can be heard saying.

Apparently responding to being blocked by Dolloff, Keltner then said, “Don’t fucking touch me, motherfucker,” and struck the bodyguard.

The 9 News video stops just before the shot is fired, but resumes during the arrest as the journalist tells the police that he has a press badge and Dolloff was protecting him.

The 9 News journalist who recorded the video did not respond to a request to discuss the incident.

Elijah Schaffer, a freelance producer for Glenn Beck’s Blaze TV who has distorted acts of violence at left-wing protests in the past, also ignored the Denver police statement to portray the entire incident as a politically motivated killing.

Just after the police statement was released, Schaffer drew attention to an excerpt from a video livestream from the scene which showed that, in the immediate aftermath of the killing, the man in the “Black Guns Matter” shirt, whose provocative behavior had initiated the conflict with Keltner, was loudly celebrating his death. Schaffer tried to fit the man’s appalling reaction into a simple political frame by falsely describing him as “an Antifa protester.”

Video shot by another reporter for 9 News, Marc Sallinger, appeared to show that man, who had provoked the initial argument with Keltner but was not involved in the shooting, being arrested by the police a short time later.

When it was reported on Sunday that Dolloff might have been operating as a security contractor without a license, conservative trolls moved on from accusing him of being an antifa hit man to attacking the news station. Some of the trolls accused the NBC affiliate of being part of a left-wing plot; other blamed the station for irresponsibly hiring an armed guard who was not properly screened.

While Dolloff was contracted by the station from Pinkerton, the news organization’s decision to dispatch an armed man to accompany its reporters as they cover protests raises serious ethical questions that have yet to be answered.

Dolloff, who is being held without bond on suspicion of murder, made a virtual court appearance on Sunday, during which he reportedly strained to hear the judge.

A statement from the management of 9 News on Monday blamed Pinkerton for not ensuring that Dolloff was properly licensed. The firm said that the situation was under review and it is cooperating with the law enforcement investigation.

A lawyer for Dolloff’s family argued in an interview with The Denver Post on Monday that the security guard had acted in self-defense, claiming his client feared for his safety when he saw Keltner raise what turned out to be not a gun but a can of pepper spray. “I think it’s important to recognize that this is somebody who is at the protest working to protect First Amendment rights,” the lawyer, Doug Richards told the newspaper. “He was not there on behalf of any organization or to advance any political agenda,” he added.

Richards maintained that Dolloff was properly trained and had even worked, the night before the shooting, as an armed guard during a televised debate between Colorado’s Republican and Democratic U.S. Senate candidates, Sen. Cory Gardner and John Hickenlooper, at the studio of another local broadcaster, the ABC affiliate Denver 7.

That news channel confirmed that it also contracted with Pinkerton to provide security, but disputed that Dolloff had been armed, saying that it had asked that the guards for the debate be unarmed.

Prosecutors had not yet charged Dolloff for the fatal shooting as of Tuesday morning. In an affidavit made public on Tuesday, the police revealed that Dolloff was arrested on a charge of first degree murder and that the incident was also captured on the network of security cameras operated by the police force as part of its High Activity Location Observation program, also known as HALO. That video has not yet been made public.

The police account of the killing also states that Keltner struck Dolloff, who then took out a semiautomatic handgun and fired the fatal shot, as the victim sprayed the gunman with pepper spray. Keltner was pronounced dead at Denver Health Medical Center at 4:05 p.m. less than 30 minutes after the altercation began.

Updated: Tuesday, October 13, 12:20 p.m. PDT
This article was updated with new information — including more video of the fatal encounter, background on the Pinkerton security firm’s violent history — and to clarify the circumstances of a fatal shooting after a conservative rally on Saturday in Denver. Photographs and video from witnesses appear to show that the victim, Lee Keltner, a conservative demonstrator, struck Matthew Dolloff, a reporter’s bodyguard, as a dispute over an unknown issue turned physical. It was Dolloff who was solely responsible for the use of deadly force by reaching for his gun and firing the fatal shot at point-blank range.

Updated: Wednesday, October 14, 12:53 p.m. PDT
This article was updated again on Wednesday to report a new statement from Denver’s 9 News released on Tuesday, three days after the shooting, in which the station’s management said that it had asked Pinkerton that the security guard it hired not be armed. The station’s initial reports on the incident, on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, did not include that claim.