Expert who warned of Trump's fascist behavior: America is entering a new era of political instability 

 

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 Trump supporters stand on the US Capitol Police armored vehicle as others take over the steps of the Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, as the Congress works to certify the electoral college votes. Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

• Ruth Ben-Ghiat is a prominent historian and a scholar on fascism and authoritarian leaders. She's the author of "Strongmen: From Mussolini to the Present."
• Just after the 2016 election, Ben-Ghiat predicted that President Trump would engage in desperate measures to hold onto power.
• She believes we should pay close attention to these attempts, which have been supported by many Republicans even after the January 6 attacks on the US Capitol.
• Trump is leaving office, but plenty of his loyalists will remain in positions of power and could create more support for some form of authoritarian governance, she writes.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

"I know you're disappointed, but I want you to know that our incredible journey is just beginning," President Trump told his followers via video on January 7, finally acknowledging his loss to Joe Biden in the November 3 election. While his speechwriters put in language condemning the armed assault on the Capitol Building one day earlier, it was these final words of his announcement that caught my attention - and not in a good way. 

© Ruth Ben-Ghiat Ruth Ben-Ghiat. Ruth Ben-Ghiat

The events of January 6 may have ended Trump's two-month quest to stay in office illegally, but they may also mark the start of a new danger for America.

Once unleashed from the White House, Trump will be free to act as an outside agitator and work freely with extremists within and outside of the Republican party to further destabilize American democracy. 

Having researched how strongmen leaders from the fascists onward have destroyed democracies around the world, I immediately perceived the threat Trump's lies, corruption, and incitements to violence presented to the health of our republic when he came into office.

That same expertise led me to forecast just after the election that Trump would not leave office quietly, but would engage in desperate measures to hold onto power. 

Read more: The Capitol siege proves it's finally time to take Trump and other politicians' violent rhetoric both seriously and literally.

We should pay close attention to these attempts, which draw on anti-democratic actions across a century. 

Given that hundreds of Republican politicians supported Trump's attempts to hold onto power - some even after the January 6 assault - these dangerous actions could be normalized in the future. They could become part of the way the GOP conducts its business as a far-right party. 

This is already how authoritarianism already operates under Russia's Vladimir Putin and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan - two leaders Trump admires. Election results that don't go your way become just another piece of information to be denied and replaced with a fabrication that suits the false reality you need to maintain to stay in power. 

Trump set a precedent in saying he won the election and then attempting to manipulate votes to make that claim "true." 

So let's break down what he tried. 

First, Trump evoked the age of military coups in exploring a military intervention - until General Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, quashed that idea. Then he attempted to pull off the favorite 21st century despot trick of electoral manipulation, pressuring officials in Georgia to "find votes." That didn't work in this instance, but with the "right" players, the game could have had a different outcome. 

Read more: Trump reportedly asked a Georgia elections investigator to 'find the fraud' in the 2020 election in lengthy phone call in December

Finally, Trump channeled early fascism in calling on the extremist paramilitary groups he'd played like a violin since he retweeted a neo-Nazi meme early in his presidential campaign. For four years, he has posed as "their man" to cultivate their loyalty. In calling militia, white supremacist, and other far-right groups to Washington DC to "stop the steal" and rescue him from defeat (by preventing the Electoral College from certifying Biden's victory), I'm reminded of blackshirts and brownshirts who used violence to defend their leaders Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler (one insurgent wore a "Camp Auschwitz" T-shirt to make the link clear). 

Once the January 6 assault on the halls of power began, Trump showed whose side he was on, letting the violence unfold even as Capitol Police were injured, some fatally. He delayed any call for insurgents to disperse until the destruction was tangible. It's not surprising that some extremists seemed to have understood his January 7 speech as another version of the "stand back and stand by" comment he made to the Proud Boys at a September 2020 rally. In fact, plans are underway for a January 17 "armed march" on the Capitol and state houses around the country. 

If such violent attacks on government buildings become our new reality, it will be a testament to Trump's success in legitimizing extremism and giving it a focus. The goal, going forward, could be to create chaos so that the Biden administration seems incapable of "keeping order," thus clearing the way for Republicans to retake the White House in 2024. 

Read more: Airbnb is canceling and blocking all Washingon, DC reservations during the week of the inauguration

This endgame matters, because although it might be comforting to think of the insurgents who stormed the Capitol as outliers or kooks, investigations by the Associated Press and other outlets revealed that members of law enforcement and the military along with Republican donors and officials were among the participants. The danger to our republic is not just external to the "establishment," but also comes from within our institutions. 

Trump may be leaving office on January 20, but he will leave plenty of loyalists behind in positions of influence who can work with him over the next years to damage American democracy and create more support for some form of authoritarian governance. 

Ruth Ben-Ghiat is an American historian and cultural critic, a scholar on fascism and authoritarian leaders, and a professor at New York University. A frequent political commentator, she writes for CNN and other news sites about fascism, authoritarian leaders, propaganda, and threats to democracy around the world and how to counter them. She's the author of "Strongmen: From Mussolini to the Present."

Read the original article on Business Insider

 IT NEVER WAS, THAT'S THE PENTAGON

'Safest place in Washington' no more. A reporter's disbelief

WASHINGTON — I still can’t stop watching the videos.

There are so many of them, each with new clues about what happened a week ago today in familiar corners of the sprawling U.S. Capitol complex. Thousands of insurrectionists outside calling for a revolution. Images of broken windows and defaced relics. My own raw footage of the chaos in the House chamber. And of course the heroic Capitol Police officer who appeared to lead a mob away from the Senate doors by himself as they advanced up a staircase I have climbed so many times.

In the last week, I have pored over the images again and again, muting videos if my children are nearby, pausing and rewinding. Finding new details.

I still can’t believe it happened. But it did, and the videos are the terrifying proof.

I want to piece it all together, to better understand my own experience that day as hundreds of angry rioters supportive of President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol to protest his defeat in the election. At the time, I was convinced I would be OK even as I ducked on the floor in the upper gallery of the House chamber with members of Congress and other reporters.

It’s now clear from the footage that there were rioters close to breaching at least three separate entrances of the House as we waited, the last group left in the chamber. Below, at the main entrance, we could see police keeping them out with a furniture barricade, shouting with their guns drawn, and broken glass in the door. What we didn’t know then was that on the other side of the House, rioters were also breaking the glass doors of the ornate speaker's lobby, a frequent gathering spot for members and reporters. We did hear a gunshot as an officer shot one of them, dispersing the crowd. The woman struck by that bullet later died.

When we were finally taken out of the House gallery, police leading us quickly down a grand stairway, we passed another group of at least six intruders laying on the floor, officers over them with enormous guns pointed down. It appeared that they had been close to the area where we had waited.

Just an hour earlier, as TV reports started to come in about the insurgents outside, my mother sent me a text telling me to stay safe. I told her I was sitting in the press gallery overlooking the House chamber, covering the counting of electoral votes.

“Probably the safest place in Washington right now,” I texted back, not joking.

I believed that up until the moment I heard them pounding on the House door — probably even after that. I’ve covered the Hill on and off for almost 20 years, and I’ve always felt safe in the Capitol.

Sometimes overly so. During Trump’s impeachment trial a year ago, what seemed like hundreds of police lined the same hallways and staircases that the officer in the Senate defended alone last Wednesday. They were there ostensibly to protect the senators from the press, and our movements were unusually — and we thought unfairly — restricted.

But the police are also a comforting presence. In the summer of 2004, just three years after 9-11, I was sitting in a Senate press gallery when the entire Capitol evacuated in just a few minutes because there were reports of a plane headed toward the building. It ended up being a false alarm, but I have always marveled at how quickly the Capitol Police emptied the building, yelling at us to take off our shoes and run. “There is a plane headed for the Capitol! You have two minutes!” they yelled as we ran out.

Since then, and last week, I had faith that there would be similar procedures in place. If there was a problem, there would be a well-executed plan to keep everyone safe. Of course there would. This is the U.S. Capitol. A fortress. The seat of American government. It wasn’t a question.

But my strong sense of safety was eroded on Wednesday in slow motion, as the rioters gradually approached the inner sanctum of the U.S. House.

How could this be happening? Everyone was asking the same question in their heads, and to each other after we were rushed to safety. Not here.

In the days after, I have sorted through the video evidence, much of it recorded by the rioters themselves. And I have pored over the small details of the day with my husband, a reporter for another publication who was in a different part of the Capitol. His photos and videos, like mine, are chilling.

When I saved his images to my phone, making sure they were kept for posterity, they mixed with my own in chronological order. The time stamps told a story.

At 2:20 p.m., my husband filmed rioters trying to break through a main door on the east front of the Capitol. The door is unprotected, with no police visible nearby. At 2:33 p.m., from a different location, he filmed the rioters walking through Statuary Hall toward the House chamber, with two police walking by in the opposite direction. At 2:37 p.m., my photo of lawmakers on the House floor putting on gas masks. Two minutes later, video of lawmakers streaming out of the chamber. By 2:42 p.m., I am filming from a different location in the upper gallery, where they have moved those of us who remained, and peeking my phone above the balcony to capture the armed standoff below. At 2:50, a video I didn’t even realize I had taken, chaotic footage of the ground as they hustled us out of the chamber.

I am focusing on the good things, and the people who helped. None of us was hurt inside the House chamber, or across the Capitol on the Senate side, where an AP colleague was evacuating as the rioters pushed up those stairs. The rioters eventually were pushed out. Press gallery staff moved extremely quickly and got us out of the House safely.

Still, I am sad to lose that sense of safety I always had in the Capitol, not only for myself but for my country.

I’ll be back there soon, and security will be much tighter. But it’s not the safest place in Washington.

Mary Clare Jalonick, The Associated Press

YouTube removes Rudy Giuliani podcast video and Steve Bannon's channel as it cracks down on misinformation

Kelly Tyko, USA TODAY

President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani still had a Twitter account as of Saturday but one of his recent podcasts was removed by YouTube.



President Trump has been permanently banned from Twitter

A message on a video, which Giuliani also tweeted Friday, says it "has been removed for violating YouTube's Community Guidelines." Google-owned YouTube also confirmed to USA TODAY Saturday that Giuliani's video violated the company's guidelines.

Giuliani didn't immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment. His Twitter account tweeted about the video again Saturday night, which is now posted on his website, and wrote "YOUTUBE CENSORED AND REMOVED THIS VIDEO."

YouTube had said it is cracking down on new videos featuring misinformation as they and other tech companies including Facebook and Twitter face backlash after a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. In the video podcast, Giuliani describes the events that day, suggesting they were orchestrated to make President Trump look bad.

© Matt Slocum, AP 

Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer for President Donald Trump, challenges vote counting in Pennsylvania on Nov. 4 in Philadelphia.

Rush Limbaugh leaves Twitter: Rush Limbaugh deactivates his Twitter account after President Trump permanently banned

Trump ban: President Trump permanently banned from Twitter over risk he could incite violence

The YouTube account for former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast was taken down.

In a statement, YouTube said it had "terminated Steve Bannon’s channel 'War room' and one associated channel for repeatedly violating our Community Guidelines."

The podcast videos are posted on Bannon's website with this note: "While YouTube announces broad censorship mandates for any channel discussing the election, Steve Bannon discusses the latest on the coronavirus pandemic and the latest updates on the state of the election."

YouTube and social media companies including Facebook and Twitter have been lambasted by critics who say their platforms contribute to the spread of misinformation culminating with rioters storming the Capitol as proceedings to confirm President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election began.

Facebook and Twitter stepped up enforcement on President Trump's accounts to curb the spread of false information. On Thursday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said posting to Trump's accounts on the social network and Instagram would be blocked indefinitely.

On Friday, Twitter permanently banned Trump. Also on Friday, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh's Twitter account was deactivated. Twitter confirmed to USA TODAY that the account wasn't suspended but "deactivated by the owner."

When USA TODAY asked Twitter about the status of Giuliani's Twitter account as well as a Trump War Room account that was not suspended Friday, the company said the accounts "are currently not in violation of our policies."

Twitter permanently suspended the @TeamTrump account for ban evasion late Friday.

Contributing: Brett Molina and Jessica Guynn, USA TODAY

Follow USA TODAY reporter Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @KellyTyko

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: YouTube removes Rudy Giuliani podcast video and Steve Bannon's channel as it cracks down on misinformation

Authorities: Man in 'Camp Auschwitz' shirt at riot arrested

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NORFOLK, Va. — A man photographed wearing a “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt during the U.S. Capitol riot was arrested Wednesday in Virginia, authorities said.

Robert Keith Packer, 56, was arrested in Newport News, where he lives. He was charged with violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, and unlawfully entering a restricted building.

President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building last week after a rally the president held to repeat baseless election grievances. Five people died during the siege, including a Capitol police officer, a woman shot by police and three people who had medical emergencies.

Packer entered the Capitol wearing a sweatshirt with the name of the Nazi concentration camp where about 1.1 million people were killed during World War II, according to a criminal complaint. The sweatshirt also bore the phrase, “Work brings freedom,” a translation of “Arbeit macht frei,” the German phrase that appeared on the camp’s entrance.

The photograph of Packer in the sweatshirt caused an uproar on social media, and the images ultimately helped authorities track him down. The complaint said an FBI agent confirmed Packer’s identity by comparing rally photos to his driver’s license and security footage of him wearing the shirt at a store near where he lives.

During a federal court hearing Wednesday, a prosecutor said the government would not be seeking Packer's detention. A federal judge said Packer would be released promptly on a personal recognizance bond that bars him from visiting Washington unless it’s for a court appearance.

Packer said he intends to hire his own lawyer, instead of a court-appointed attorney. He did not identify who would represent him in the case.

Two police officers from Rocky Mount, Virginia, face the same charges. Sgt. Thomas “T.J.” Robertson and officer Jacob Fracker were both placed on administrative leave by the Rocky Mount Police Department after they attended the rally while off-duty.

A statement of facts written by a U.S. Capitol Police special agent and unsealed Wednesday said Robertson and Fracker were photographed in the Capitol Building “making an obscene statement” before a statue of John Stark, an American Revolutionary War officer from New Hampshire famous for writing the state's “Live Free or Die” motto.

In social media posts, Robertson is quoted as saying: “CNN and the Left are just mad because we actually attacked the government who is the problem and not some random small business … The right IN ONE DAY took the f------ U.S. Capitol. Keep poking us.”

The statement also describes a now-deleted Facebook post by Fracker containing the caption, “Lol to anyone who's possibly concerned about the picture of me going around...Sorry I hate freedom? ...Not like I did anything illegal...”

The statement cites comments Robertson made to news outlets in which he said he broke no laws, did not know about the violence and that he had been escorted into the building by the Capitol Police.

“Moreover, at that date and time, the United States Capitol was on lockdown and the defendants' presence inside was without lawful authority,” Special Agent Vincent Veloz wrote.

Robertson told The Roanoke Times that he does not support the violence that occurred.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “For it to go like that is absolutely ridiculous.”

A federal judge said at a hearing Wednesday that he would release Fracker and Robertson on unsecured bond. A condition of their release is that they cannot visit Washington, unless it’s for a matter related to the case against them.

FBI spokeswoman Christina Pullen said another Virginia man, Douglas Allen Sweet, of Grimstead, also was arrested Wednesday on charges including violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.

Sweet was charged along with five others who police said were on the upper level of the United States Capitol Visitors Center.

The criminal complaint against Sweet and five others described a scene in which several dozen people were “making loud noises, and kicking chairs, throwing an unknown liquid substance at officers, and spraying an unknown substance at officers.”

Capitol police ordered the crowd to leave, and the crowd responded by shouting and cursing at the officers, the complaint states. Police said Sweet and the five others “were positioned towards the front of the crowd, close to the Capitol police officers who were responding.”

“The six individuals, like others in the larger crowd, wilfully refused the order to leave,” the complaint says.

One of Sweet’s daughters, Robyn Sweet, said in a Facebook message to a reporter that her father "doesn’t mean any harm and is a good person at heart.”

"I think he truly believes that what he is doing is the right thing. But I feel he has become terribly misguided and disillusioned by the far-right groups he involves himself with,” she said.

___

Lavoie reported from Richmond, Virginia. Associated Press writer Michael Balsamo in Washington contributed to this report.

Ben Finley And Denise Lavoie, The Associated Press

QAnon Enthusiast Marjorie Taylor Greene Has A New Conspiracy Theory About Nancy Pelosi

Trump loyalist and QAnon believer Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, known for repeatedly refusing to wear a mask in the Capitol building, accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of exposing Congress members to COVID-19 after lawmakers convened to reelect Pelosi to lead the House of Representatives

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© Provided by Refinery29

On Monday, Democratic House member Pramila Jayapal tweeted saying she tested positive for coronavirus after being evacuated to a secure room where several Republicans who “not only cruelly refused to wear a mask but recklessly mocked colleagues and staff who offered them one.” Quick to jump in with an alternative scenario in which Jayapal could have been exposed to the virus, Greene responded via Twitter, saying that Jayapal should speak with Pelosi “before you point fingers at me or anyone else.” She further theorized that it was infected House members who attended the vote for Speaker last week who must have transmitted the virus.

When asked about her accusation by NBC-affiliate 11Alive News, Greene stood by her claim, insisting that anyone who received a positive COVID-19 test result has Pelosi to blame. “Healthy people do not spread COVID. COVID positive people spread COVID,” she said in a statement. “Everyone was exposed ALL week by the COVID positive members who Nancy Pelosi brought into the Capitol and into Washington DC. It is absolutely ridiculous and insane to blame those of us who did not have COVID or symptoms…It’s absurd to say they caught it during the safe room.” Greene failed to mention that the idea that a person must exhibit symptoms in order to carry coronavirus has been disproven by medical experts, who say that it is common for people to be asymptomatic and spread the virus unknowingly.

During the attack on the Capitol on January 6, many Congress members hunkered down in windowless safe rooms for hours, no more than an arms-length from each other. While they may have been safe from the violence nearby, a video first published by Punchbowl News shows multiple maskless Republicans, including Greene, refusing masks offered to them by Democratic Rep. Lisa Blunt. According to an email sent by Congress’ attending physician, Brian Monahan, it is possible that individuals may have been exposed to the virus during that time.



A week after the riot, three Democratic lawmakers sheltered in that room have reportedly tested positive for coronavirus. Jayapal dubbed it a “superspreader event on top of a domestic terrorist attack,” in a statement released on her website.

Since blaming Pelosi for the spread of COVID-19 among Congressional members, Greene has also turned her anger toward reporters calling them “liars” as she entered the Capitol building on Tuesday. As she went through newly installed metal detectors, she reportedly thanked officers for working before lashing out at photographers taking photos.

According to NBC News, Greene began yelling and asking what the journalists were reporting on, and inquiring where they were when people “burned buildings and looted.” This was an apparent reference to Black Lives Matter marches this past summer; clearly Greene didn’t pay attention to the months of extensive coverage of that movement.

Interestingly, Greene was wearing a mask on Tuesday as she went through the additional security measures. But, as recently as this morning, Greene has continued to respond to reports of Congress members likely being exposed during the riots on Twitter maintaining that Pelosi is solely responsible. Clearly, Greene has never met an anti-Democratic conspiracy theory that she doesn’t like — or didn’t create

There's a reason why Capitol rioters dressed up in costumes

They stormed the Capitol dressed like mayhem. Amidst the sea of MAGA hats and Trump flags, there were rioters in animal pelts and superhero costumes; they came dressed as Uncle Sam, Abraham Lincoln and Lady Liberty, and in tactical gear; one person wore Superman body armor, replete with muscles, and a plastic mask of President Donald Trump's head. There was no shortage of face paint. There were pioneers, tons of camouflage and iterations of the Punisher — the Marvel character who has been co-opted as a symbol of the far right.

© Provided by NBC News

Perhaps the most recognizable person of the day was conspiracy theorist Jake Angeli, also known as the "Q Shaman," who was shirtless to expose numerous tattoos, most notably one of a Valknut, an old Norse runic symbol that has been turned into a hate symbol by white supremacists. Angeli, who has been arrested, also wore red, white and blue face paint and a fur headdress with prominent horns. He carried a spear with an American flag attached near the blade.

To many, the costumes at the "Stop the Steal" riot seem ridiculous. "We spend $750 billion annually on 'defense' and the center of American government fell in two hours to the duck dynasty and the guy in the Chewbacca bikini," read a tweet liked hundreds of thousands of times. But when we actually read the T-shirt slogans and interpret the symbols — especially given the history of groups like the Ku Klux Klan — what the Capitol insurrectionists wore becomes more consequential and a lot more menacing.

When the Ku Klux Klan started in the mid-1860s, Klansmen did not wear the white hoods and robes we imagine them in now. They had no uniform. As historian Elaine Frantz explains in her essay "Midnight Rangers: Costume and Performance in the Reconstruction-Era Ku Klux Klan," the early Klansmen wore something far more similar to the hodgepodge we saw on display at the Capitol last week: animal horns, fur, fake beards, homemade costumes that drew on traditions of carnival or Mardi Gras, masks, pointy hats, polka dots. For Frantz, who also wrote a book about the birth of the KKK, the parallels between the appearance of 19th century Klansmen and the Jan. 6 rioters were impossible to ignore.

"When I looked at this weirdo who was dressed as a Viking, I was like, 'Does he know what he's doing?'" Frantz tells NBC THINK about Angeli. "Is he aware of this tradition, or is it a coincidence? Or is it not just a coincidence and he's not aware, but it's something which travels through our culture in the background? Maybe he doesn't even know what he's doing, but he's doing exactly what he would have done in the 19th century."




Duration 2:49 

Who were the Capitol Hill rioters, and the woman who was shot?

But whether or not the "Q Shaman" knew exactly whom he was channeling when he put on his horns and fur, putting on the outfit is likely to have influenced his behavior.

Abe Rutchick, a professor of psychology at California State University, Northridge, explains that dressing in costume can affect how we act. "If we're dressing in costume, we're clearly trying to evoke a role or a character. It can influence people's self-perception and behavior," he said. For instance, Jake Angeli shirtless, with horns and fur on his head, quickly becomes the Q Shaman, similar to the way Jack Napier in clown makeup can turn into the Joker.

The fact that many of the outfits from the Capitol look comical is, historically, also not a coincidence. "Adopting this carnivalesque posture, they can actually say: 'We're not really hurting them. They're just afraid because they're fearful,'" Frantz says with respect to how early Klansmen argued away their crimes.

Frantz, who is a professor of history at Kent State University, sees parallels between past absurdism and the comedic element now. "Comic frames are very helpful, because it gave people a way to deny what was really happening," he says. He cites using Pepe the Frog as an example of how that tactic is still used today. "The comic deniability of populist movements," she calls it.

Take, for instance, the lunacy of a man waving for the camera as he walks off with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's lectern. How could he be doing something wrong — he looks so emboldened and silly? Or the brazenness of wearing your employee ID badge to the revolution. It must be noted that both of these men, like the vast majority of the rioters last week — and the 19th century Klansmen — were white. Race adds another element of deniability.

While not all of the rioters last week wore costumes, and indeed a majority of them did not, nearly all wore symbols or logos or insignias of some kind. There was Robert Keith Packer, who wore a gruesome sweatshirt that read "Camp Auschwitz" on the front and "Staff" on the back. Or Doug Jensen, who has been indicted on six federal charges, who specifically called attention to his QAnon shirt on social media. Members of the Oath Keepers, a militia movement that focuses on recruiting current and former members of the military, were also there wearing body armor and customized baseball caps. Numerous other extremist groups in attendance wore some kind of insignia or symbol declaring their affiliations in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. There was, of course, a proliferation of the highly recognizable Confederate flag.

Rutchick explains that the purpose of wearing uniforms, insignias, tattoos or symbols that show allegiance is twofold; they create a sense of in-group camaraderie and a sense of out-group distance. We see (mostly) benign examples of this phenomenon at sporting events. As you get closer and closer to the stadium, you see more and more people wearing your team's hat, and the more excited you get. Excitement grows as density grows; it's human nature.

A more sinister version occurred in Washington last week. Rioters came together at the rally, gathering strength in numbers and by identifying with one another through their symbols and costumes. "As soon as you see someone in your group and in context, there's a connection," Rutchick says.

Members of the far-right Proud Boys — whom Trump famously told to "stand back, and stand by" during his 2020 campaign — were at the Capitol in large numbers, and they were characteristically organized. The group, which usually dresses in yellow and black — often in the form of a Fred Perry polo shirt — told members to dress all in black this time, as if they were part of the anti-fascist movement known as antifa. "We will not be attending D.C. in colors. We will be blending in as one of you. You won't see us. You'll even think we are you," Joe Briggs, an organizer for the group, said in a video on Parler. "We are going to smell like you, move like you, look like you."

After the riots, some conservatives tried to claim that the violence was perpetuated mainly by antifa agitators.

It is easy to ignore or dismiss things that seem confusing or silly or over the top. But our clothing choices, like our tweets, can say a lot about who we are. "Big protest in D.C. on January 6th," Trump tweeted Dec. 19. And perhaps in a choice of phrase that inspired some of the animal fur on display, "Be there, will be wild!"

Mix of extremists who stormed Capitol isn't retreating

BOISE, Idaho — As rioters laid siege to the U.S. Capitol, the seat of American democracy became a melting pot of extremist groups: militia members, white supremacists, paramilitary organizations, anti-maskers and fanatical supporters of President Donald Trump, standing shoulder to shoulder in rage

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© Provided by The Canadian Press

Experts say it was the culmination of years of increasing radicalization and partisanship, combined with a growing fascination with paramilitary groups and a global pandemic. And they warn that the armed insurrection that left five people dead and shook the country could be just the beginning.

“We look at it like a conveyor belt of radicalization," said Devin Burghart, executive director of the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights. “Once they step on that conveyor belt, they’re inundated with propaganda that moves them along that path until they’re willing to take up arms.”

Photographs and video of the Capitol siege showed people wearing attire with symbols associated with the anti-government Three Percenters movement and the Oath Keepers, a loosely organized group of right-wing extremists.

Many of those who stormed the Capitol were wearing clothes or holding signs adorned with symbols of the QAnon conspiracy theory, which centres on the baseless belief that Trump is waging a secret campaign against the “deep state” and a cabal of sex-trafficking cannibals. One of the intruders was wearing a “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt, a reference to the Nazi death camp.

Those who monitor online chatter say the threat of more violence by far-right fringe groups hasn't abated, though it has been tougher to track since the social media platform Parler, a haven for right-wing extremists, was booted off the internet.

“We’re certainly not out of the woods yet. I’m afraid that we’re going to have to be prepared for some worst-case scenarios for a while," said Amy Cooter, a senior lecturer in sociology at Vanderbilt University who studies U.S. militia groups.

The FBI is warning of plans for armed protests at all 50 state capitals and in Washington in the days leading up to President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration next Wednesday. Cooter believes smaller gatherings at state capitals are a greater threat than a large, centrally organized event in Washington, given the heightened security there.

How many extremists are out there is unclear. Individual fringe groups tend to be small, with the largest claiming hundreds of members, but countless others have been swept up in the fury of late.

To understand the mix of extremists in the Capitol melee, it helps to look at history.

Much of the modern militia movement was a reaction to the push for tougher gun control laws in the 1990s. An 11-day standoff that left three people dead on Idaho's Ruby Ridge in 1992 galvanized the movement, as did the disaster in Waco, Texas, the following year, when 76 people died in a fire after a 51-day standoff at the Branch Davidian cult compound.

A decade later, Cliven Bundy and his sons Ryan and Ammon Bundy engaged in armed standoffs with the federal government, first in a fight over grazing rights on federal land in Nevada in 2014, then in a 40-day occupation of a national wildlife refuge in Oregon in 2016. Those standoffs drew the sympathies of some Western ranchers and farmers who feared they were losing the ability to prosper financially.

Meanwhile, America’s white supremacy movement -- as old as the country itself and energized by the civil rights movement of the 1960s -- used every opportunity to stoke racism and increase recruitment. Within the last two decades, nationalists and white supremacists were especially successful in leveraging anti-immigration sentiment and the backlash over Barack Obama's election as the nation’s first black president in 2008.

Some who follow such movements say the coronavirus pandemic provided the perfect recruitment opportunity.

Militias helped distribute surplus farm produce to the unemployed. Neo-Nazis pushed conspiracy claims that the government was trying to limit “herd immunity.” An anti-government group launched by Ammon Bundy last spring called People’s Rights held an Easter church service in defiance of a lockdown order in Idaho.

“That was the moment that sent a message nationwide that it was OK to take an insurrectionist posture toward COVID guidelines -- and from that moment you saw this take hold across the country,” said Burghart, whose organization published an October report on the People’s Rights network.

While previously those upset about COVID-19 rules would complain online, suddenly individuals were defying authorities by opening their gyms or refusing to wear masks in very confrontational ways. For these individuals, social media accelerated a radicalization process that normally takes years into just a few months, fueled by the powerlessness many felt amid COVID-19 shutdowns.

“You had all of these kind of small interventions to try to fight against any kind of common-sense health restrictions," Burghart said. “And in that moment you saw, simultaneously, militia activists getting involved in the COVID struggle and COVID insurrectionists taking up the militia posture and wanting to get involved with militia groups.”

The danger could intensify. The Capitol insurrection both further normalized the idea of violent government overthrow and allowed extremist groups to network with a broader population, said Lindsay Schubiner, an expert in extremism with the Western States Center.

As those groups continue to train and expand -- many already offer instruction in weapons, first aid, food storage and ham radios -- the risk of “lone wolf” actions also increases, she said, with members taking matters into their own hands when they feel their group has not gone far enough.

Stewart Rhodes, an Army veteran who founded the Oath Keepers in 2009, had been saying for weeks around the election that his group was preparing for a civil war and was ready to take orders from Trump. The group recruits current and former law enforcement officers and military personnel.

During a Nov. 10 appearance on far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars show, Rhodes said he had “good men on the ground already” in the Washington area who were “armed, prepared to go in if the president calls us up.”

“In case they attempt to remove the president illegally, we will step in and stop it,” he said.

Users on militia forums cheered on the Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol and hailed them as patriots, according to a review of social media posts by the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism. Many saw the attack as a call to arms.

Authorities have arrested more than 100 people on charges linked to the Capitol siege, but court documents don’t publicly identify any of them as members of a militia-style group, according to an Associated Press review of records.

Less than a week after the riot, several armed men in tactical gear with “Texas Militia” labels on their combat fatigues gathered at the Texas state capitol as lawmakers returned to work for a new legislative session. Texas GOP chairman Allen West posed with the group for a photo and shared the picture on the party's Twitter account.

The gathering at the Texas statehouse in Austin came the same day President Trump flew to the southern border in Alamo, Texas, where he took no responsibility for his part in fomenting the violent insurrection in Washington, D.C. “People thought that what I said was totally appropriate,” Trump said.

Stopping extremist groups may be impossible, but pushing those groups further to the political margins is possible, Schubiner said.

“Everyone who believes in inclusive democracy and does not believe in political violence needs to come out and say so strongly, and then back that up with actions,” she said.

___

This story has been corrected to show that the “Texas Militia” group gathered at the Statehouse in Auston while Trump was at the Texas border. Flaccus reported from Portland, Oregon and Kunzelman reported from College Park, Maryland. Associated Press writer Paul Weber in Austin, Texas contributed to this report.

Rebecca Boone, Gillian Flaccus And Michael Kunzelman, The Associated Press

AOC Thought She Was Going To Die During The Siege & She’s Calling Out Republicans Who Still Don’t Care

In an alarming video addressing the attack on the Capitol last week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that she did not know if she was going to “make it to the end of that day alive” after Trump supporters and extremist groups stormed the building where members of Congress were certifying the Electoral College votes. Between descriptions of her experience and that of fellow “Squad” member, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, some are suspecting that there are those on the inside who cannot be trusted

.

© Provided by Refinery29 Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez(D-NY) listens as Facebook Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before the House Financial Services Committee on “An Examination of Facebook and Its Impact on the Financial Services and Housing Sectors” in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC on October 23, 2019.

 (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

“I myself did not feel safe going to that extraction point, because there were QAnon and white supremacist sympathizers and, frankly, white supremacist members of Congress in that extraction point who I know, and who I felt would disclose my location, who would create opportunities to allow me to be hurt, kidnapped, etc,” Ocasio-Cortez said during her Instagram Live on Tuesday night. “And so, I didn’t even feel safe around other members of Congress.” At another point in the livestream, AOC said that she did not feel like it was an exaggeration to say that “many members of the House were nearly assassinated.”

She did not provide further details about her experience on January 6, saying that she wasn’t sure she could, given security issues. Throughout the violent insurrection, many Congress members were forced to evacuate either to designated safe areas or to barricade themselves in offices. “There was a sense that something was wrong,” Ocasio-Cortez continued. “Obvious with the violence, but there was a sense that something was wrong from the inside.”

While others rushed to other buildings on the Capitol grounds, members of Pressley’s office barricaded themselves in, using furniture and extra water jugs that had accumulated during the pandemic. Pressley’s chief of staff, Sarah Groh, said that during the attack they made an unsettling discovery. “Every panic button in my office had been torn out – the whole unit,” Groh said, adding that she had used them before in that office. As Groh, Pressley, and her husband were escorted to several different secure locations, Groh said they were not only worried about the rioters, but because they didn’t know which law enforcement officers they could trust.

Ocasio-Cortez echoed a similar experience saying, “But next to that, there was also acts of betrayal. And to run in the Capitol in our nation’s capital and not knowing if an officer is there to help you or to harm you is also quite traumatizing.” Whether she was referring to the Capitol officers who reportedly appeared to have joined the ranks of the rioters, or if she was referring to something that has yet to be shared publicly, is unclear.

One Democratic lawmaker went as far as to accuse Republican colleagues of leading groups on tours of the building the day before the mob stormed the Capitol. While addressing her constituents in a Facebook Live broadcast on Tuesday night, Rep. Mikie Sherrill described seeing “members of Congress who had groups coming through the Capitol that I saw on January 5 for reconnaissance for the next day.” Sherill did not identify which members of Congress she saw leading these groups, reports the Washington Post.

One thing AOC was very clear on during her Instagram Live is that anyone who helped lame duck President Donald Trump must be removed from office. She specifically called out Senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz who have been some of the loudest voices pushing to overturn the election results. She included the other 145 Republicans in the House and Senate who voted in favor of throwing out the election results in her call for resignations. Calling for their resignations, Ocasio-Cortez said, “You do not belong in the United States Senate. Let me give you a sneak peek: You will never be president. You will never command the respect of this country, never. Never. And you should resign.”

Shedding light on the secret reproductive lives of honey bees

NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

Honey bee health has been on the decline for two decades, with U.S. and Canadian beekeepers now losing about 25 to 40% of their colonies annually. And queen bees are failing faster than they have in the past in their ability to reproduce. The reason has been a mystery, but researchers at North Carolina State University and the University of British Columbia are finding answers.

IMAGE: NC STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCHER ALISON MCAFEE PREPARES QUEEN CELLS TO GO INTO HONEY BEE MATING COLONIES. view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO BY ALISON MCAFEE.

Their latest research, published Jan. 8 in the journal Communications Biology, offers clues about what's behind queen bee failure, finding that when sperm viability is low, the expression of a protein known to act against pathogens such as bacteria and viruses is high.

David Tarpy, a University Faculty Scholar and professor in NC State's Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, says the study has important implications for beekeepers and their customers, the farmers who rely on honey bees to pollinate their crops.

"Beekeepers have identified problem queens as a top management concern, but what's causing the problem is largely invisible. Queens go bad, and we don't know why," Tarpy said.

Alison McAfee, a postdoctoral scientist at NC State and UBC, was the study's lead author. She explained that to have a healthy hive, honey bees depend on a healthy queen, the only female bee in a colony that can reproduce.

The queen mates with many males, but only early in life, storing all the sperm that she'll use in her lifetime in her spermatheca, an abdominal organ that looks like a tiny pearl. When the sperm begin to die, the queen can't produce as many fertilized eggs. That causes the colony's population to decline.

"Queens have the potential to live for five years, but these days, half the time queens (in managed honey bee colonies) are replaced within their first six months because they are failing," McAfee said. "If a beekeeper is really lucky, a queen might live two years. Beekeepers need answers about why their queens are failing.

"The more we can find out about what is actually happening within these failed queens, the closer we can get to understanding why this queen failure is happening in the first place."

In their research, McAfee, Tarpy and their colleagues found that queens that were failing reproductively had significantly fewer sperm than ones that were reproductively thriving. And a higher percentage of the sperm they did have were dead. The researchers also discovered that compared to reproductively healthy queen bees, the failed queens were more likely to have higher levels of two viruses - sacbrood virus and black queen cell virus.

"The high levels of these viruses and poor sperm viability made us interested in seeing if there was a trade-off happening in the honey bee queen," McAfee said. "There's a classical hypothesis in reproductive biology that you can't do everything well, so there's a trade-off between immunity and being able to reproduce. It's been found in quite a few other organisms, including insects, that there are such trade-offs."

To find out if the same would be true with the honeybee queen, the researchers used a tool known as a mass spectrometer to gain a better picture of what was going on in the spermatheca of the healthy and failed queens. They identified 2,000 different proteins and determined which ones were linked to sperm viability.

One of the most significant proteins linked to sperm viability, McAfee said, was lysozyme. Lysozyme is an enzyme that's part of animals' immune systems.

"The queens with the highest sperm viability had the lowest abundance of lysozyme, indicating that they weren't investing resources in this kind of immune response," McAfee added. "That supports this idea that there's a trade-off between the queens being able to fight off infections and being able to maintain their stored sperm."

Tarpy said that the research could begin allowing researchers to find the cause of queen failure and find molecular tools that could "help identify bad queens upstream in the process before beekeepers use them and before they realize they're bad."

Right now, the cause of queen failure isn't clear. "The underlying mechanisms could be disease. They could be pesticides. They could be improper nutrition," he said. "We don't know, so we are working our way backward to identify the causes."

Once the causes are clearly understood, Tarpy added, scientists can then work forward "to help beekeepers keep mortality levels down to sustainable levels and thus keep their colonies thriving."

###

This research was supported by grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Genome Canada and Genome British Columbia, Project Apis m, the Boone Hodgson Wilkinson Trust, the Canadian Bee Research Fund and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute for Agriculture.

An abstract of the paper follows.

"Trade-offs between sperm viability and immune protein expression in honey bee queens (Apis mellifera)"

DOI: 10.1038/s42003-020-01586-w

Authors: Alison McAfee, North Carolina State University and the University of British Columbia; Abigail Chapman and Leonard J. Foster, University of British Columbia; Jeffery S. Pettis, Pettis and Associates; and David R. Tarpy, North Carolina State University

Published: Jan. 8, 2021 in Communications Biology.

Queens of many social hymenoptera keep sperm alive within their specialized storage organ, the spermatheca, for years, defying the typical trade-off between lifespan and reproduction. However, whether honey bee (Apis mellifera) queens experience a trade-off between reproduction and immunity is unknown, and the biochemical processes underlying sperm viability are poorly understood. Here, we survey quality metrics and viral loads of honey bee queens from nine genetic sources. Queens rated as 'failed' by beekeepers had lower sperm viability, fewer sperm, and higher levels of sacbrood virus and black queen cell virus. Quantitative proteomics on N?=?123 spermathecal fluid samples shows, after accounting for sperm count, health status, and apiary effects, five spermathecal fluid proteins significantly correlating with sperm viability: odorant binding protein (OBP)14, lysozyme, serpin 88Ea, artichoke, and heat-shock protein (HSP)10. The significant negative correlation of lysozyme--a conserved immune effector--with sperm viability is consistent with a reproduction vs. immunity trade-off in honey bee queens.

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