Clarence Thomas spent time at the Koch Brothers' version of Coachella. Something tells us they weren't making each other flower crowns.

Hannah Getahun
Sun, September 24, 2023 at 6:39 AM MDT·3 min read

nullAlex Wong/Getty Images // Scott Roth/Invision/AP

A new ProPublica report uncovered another undisclosed trip made by SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas.


This trip was for a fundraising event hosted by the Koch brothers' network of nonprofits.


Thomas was also criticized for attending the fundraiser over a decade ago.

Do you think Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas listens to Beyoncé?

Maybe? Either way, in 2018, the controversial judge flew into California's Coachella Valley for one of the snazziest events of the year. Unlike other influencers who make their way to Coachella, however, Thomas didn't post about it on Instagram — or his financial disclosure forms.

Of course, the event Thomas went to had nothing to do with the beloved music festival. Still, a new investigation from ProPublica uncovered his recent participation in a fundraiser hosted by the Koch brothers in the same desert valley in Southern California. (Oddly enough, the actual Coachella also has Koch connections.)

Per the publication, a network of nonprofits handled by Charles Koch, an influential conservative, hosts its largest fundraiser in the Coachella Valley every winter. There, hundreds of donors fly in with cash in hand for a jam-packed weekend with their pals.

Whether or not there was alternative music or alternative facts, guests schmoozed with some of the most powerful conservatives in the country: The lineup featured right-wing groups, including Americans For Prosperity and NFL star turned college football coach Deion Sanders.

Aside from being incredibly exclusive, the Koch Network's principal event is also extremely private, per ProPublica: Organizers rent out entire hotels and meticulously shred any documents on-site. News outlets at the time also reported that everyone had to lock their cell phones in pouches to prevent people from recording.

In 2018 — just like Queen Bey a few miles away — Thomas was one of the headliners at the event, this one at the Renaissance Esmeralda Resort and Spa in Indian Wells.

A high-level staffer with the Koch brothers' nonprofit network told ProPublica that Thomas attended dinners with the wealthiest donors and even gave guests a look into his judicial philosophy. Thomas' appearances were coordinated by Leonard Leo — the influential conservative who happens to be a pretty big fan of the Justice.

Thomas did not list the trip on his 2018 financial disclosure — a recurring theme for the Justice — and a former federal judge who spoke to ProPublica said his attendance, while not illegal, does raise questions about his conflicts of interest when handling Supreme Court cases with ties to the brothers.

This isn't even the first time Thomas has faced scrutiny for attending the event and not disclosing it. In 2010, reporters uncovered Thomas' attendance at 2008's GOP-chella. A spokesperson at the time said that he didn't participate and only made a "brief drop-by." The spokesperson did not elaborate on whether that meant he waved hello or spit a guest verse.

Representatives for Thomas did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.

Clarence Thomas’ Koch Party Is Latest Shocking Ethics Breach

Shan Wu
Sat, September 23, 2023 


Alex Wong


Justice Clarence Thomas once championed the Supreme Court line of precedent giving deference to federal agency expertise—the so-called “Chevron deference” doctrine—writing in 2005 that the Federal Telecommunications Commission was “in a far better position to address these questions than we are” in a case involving regulation of broadband internet service given that the “subject matter [that] is technical, complex, and dynamic.”

Thomas’ decision in that case—one known as Brand X—was no outlier given that the Chevron case from which the precedent arose has been cited more than 15,000 times since being decided by the high court in 1984. But 15 years later, Thomas announced that his own decision in that case was wrong because it added to the “constitutional deficiencies of Chevron and exacerbates them.” Unusually, Thomas announced his change of heart in a dissent where he advocated that SCOTUS should have accepted a case for the purpose of overruling his own opinion.

What changed?

One possible influence on the justice’s heart and mind is his previously secret history of involvement with the conservative political organization—known as the Koch network—founded by the libertarian billionaires Charles and David Koch. The Koch network has been a prime mover in the effort to whittle back and overturn the Chevron case as part of a conservative agenda to cut back on what they perceive as government overreach.

Congress Needs to Show Samuel Alito and the Supreme Court Who’s Boss

Recent reporting by ProPublica, reveals that Thomas has attended at least two donor events for the Koch network, such as the one in 2018 in which he was flown in on a private Gulfstream G2000 jet to Palm Springs, California and was a featured speaker, attending a private dinner with network donors.

“To be invited to events like the annual summit, donors typically have to give at least $100,000 a year. Those who give in the millions receive special treatment, including dinners with Charles Koch and high-profile guests. Doling out access to powerful public officials was seen as a potent fundraising strategy,” former staffers told the publication.

Thomas never reported the 2018 trip on his annual financial disclosure form. That’s the same annual financial disclosure form that for the year 2022 Thomas received an extension to file months later than other justices—as did Justice Alito—and used to justify his failure to disclose luxury trips and real estate purchases paid for by conservative billionaire Harlan Crow.

The real estate purchase dated back to 2014 but Thomas did not explain it until now and only after a string of exposes about his being the beneficiary of luxury trips, financing a luxury RV as well as the real estate purchase of a home in which Thomas’ mother lives.

Thomas’ attendance at the Koch network meeting is significant because of the Koch network’s extraordinary presence in advocacy work, including cases before the Supreme Court. “The Koch network is among the largest and most influential political organizations of the last half century, and it’s underwritten a far-reaching campaign to influence the course of American law,” ProPublica reports.

For example, the Koch network—recently rebranded as “Stand Together”—through it’s lawyers are now poised to have the Supreme Court achieve the goal of reversing the Chevron case because the high court has now accepted a case to hear next term with the specific purpose of considering whether to overrule the Chevron doctrine.

Thomas’ attendance at these donor events “puts Thomas in the extraordinary position of having served as a fundraising draw for a network that has brought cases before the Supreme Court, including one of the most closely watched of the upcoming term.”

Any federal judge who concealed such a trip would likely be considered to be in violation of their reporting requirements as well as the judicial code of conduct. “I can’t imagine—it takes my breath away, frankly—that he would go to a Koch network event for donors,” said John E. Jones III, a retired federal judge appointed by President George W. Bush. Jones said that if he had gone to a Koch summit as a district court judge. “I’d have gotten a letter that would’ve commenced a disciplinary proceeding.”

That is, any federal judge except one that sits on the U.S. Supreme Court. Unlike all other judges—federal and state—Supreme Court judges are not subject to any ethics code and steadfastly refuse to adopt one despite growing public criticism and the American Bar Association’s call for SCOTUS to adopt an ethics code.

The decades-long litigation agenda pursued by the Koch network and other conservative groups is enormously well-funded and plays a very successful long game. The overturning of Roe v. Wade is but one example of its successes. If the Chevron doctrine is thrown out, then much of the true authority over federal regulations will default to the judiciary and therefore to SCOTUS. Decisions about climate change, for example, would be greatly complicated if the Environmental Protection Agency efforts to curtail carbon emissions are derailed through judicial decisions.

In a less high-profile light is the case that puts Chevron on the chopping block—Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo—which involves the authority of the National Marine Fisheries Service to make commercial fishing companies pay for the costs of monitoring compliance with fishery management plans.

While opinions can reasonably differ on the wisdom of agency decisions as well as judicial decisions, opinion should not differ on the view that there is something wrong with allowing justices who benefit financially from groups arguing the cases before them deciding those cases.

Why All 9 Supreme Court Justices United to Avoid Accountability

It’s not that Thomas—or any other justice—can’t associate with whomever they wish but when the justices are gifted hundreds of thousands of dollars it has to be disclosed as do appearances at fundraising events which other federal judges would be disciplined for attending.

The code of conduct for the federal judiciary lays out rules designed to preserve judges’ impartiality and independence, which it calls “indispensable to justice in our society.” The code specifically prohibits both political activity and participation in fundraising. Judges are advised, for instance, not to “associate themselves” with any group “publicly identified with controversial legal, social, or political positions.”

Nor is the problem with any group—conservative or liberal—engaging in decades-long strategies for changing the law through litigation. That kind of advocacy—for better or worse—is part of our system of civil justice. No, the problem is when these changes in law are not achieved through advocacy but rather through seeking to influence judges who sit on the nation’s highest court through financial benefits involving gifts and trips.

Thomas should be forced to recuse himself from hearing cases brought by groups that he helps fundraise for and who fly him on private jets. He may even need to be investigated by Congress or the Justice Department for his failure to make timely and full disclosures. But none of that can happen so long as there is no transparency about who Thomas helps and who helps him. It all starts with transparency.

'Code of conduct:' Elena Kagan calls for new Supreme Court rules amid Clarence Thomas flap

David Jackson, USA TODAY
Sat, September 23, 2023 

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas


WASHINGTON - Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan says she hopes colleagues will adopt an ethics "code of conduct," while a new report details a relationship between Justice Clarence Thomas and conservative political activists.

New ethics rules would "go far in persuading other people that we were adhering to the highest standards of conduct," Kagan said during a Friday speech at Notre Dame Law School. "I hope we can make progress.”

Kagan did not mention Thomas or any other justice by name.

Her suggestion came the same day that ProPublica published another installment in a string of stories about Thomas and wealthy donors who have the potential of business before the court. The latest story concerns the Koch Brothers, philanthropists who have spent millions on behalf of various conservative causes.

ProPublica reported that "Thomas has attended Koch donor events at least twice over the years," and "that puts Thomas in the extraordinary position of having served as a fundraising draw for a network that has brought cases before the Supreme Court, including one of the most closely watched of the upcoming term."

The report noted that the Koch political network has an interest in a pending Supreme Court case seeking to limit "federal agencies’ power to issue regulations in areas ranging from the environment to labor rights to consumer protection."

Members of Congress have discussed legislation setting ethics standards for the Supreme Court, though it is uncertain whether they have the legal authority to regulate what is a separate branch of government.

Kagan's remarks strike a similar tone to those made a few weeks ago by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who signaled that the Supreme Court may take steps "soon" to address ethics scandals that have eroded confidence and sparked a partisan fight in Congress over whether lawmakers can force a code of ethics on the nation's highest court. Chief Justice John Roberts told an audience in May that the ethics scandals swirling around the court were an "issue of concern" and that the justices were "continuing to look at things" to address the problem.

Related: Brett Kavanaugh says he's hopeful the Supreme Court will take 'concrete steps' to address ethics scandals

Stand Together, the formal name of the Koch political network, said in a statement that Thomas did not participate in fundraising discussions and their events have a public service purpose.

"Our summits provide a forum for people to learn about how they can partner with one another to solve big problems in our country," the statement said.

It added: "The idea that attending a couple events to promote a book or give dinner remarks, as all the justices do, could somehow be undue influence just doesn’t hold water."

Dig deeper Case closed? Supreme Court silent after Thomas luxury travel raised ethics scandal

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Elena Kagan calls for new Supreme Court code amid Clarence Thomas flap

How hydrogen bombs compare to atomic bombs, and how scientists created the most destructive weapon ever

Adam Barnes
Sun, September 24, 2023 

The Trinity test (left) was made from an atomic bomb whereas Ivy Mike (right) came from a hydrogen bomb.

Hydrogen bombs and atomic bombs are both nuclear weapons that can cause mass destruction.

Most US nuclear weapons today were made in the 1950s and 1960s and are H-bombs.

H-bombs are more powerful, flexible, and cleaner than a-bombs but they're also more complex to make.

The atomic bombs dropped by the United States on Japan in 1945 remain the only nuclear weapons ever used in warfare.

But just seven years later an even more destructive nuclear bomb was built — the hydrogen bomb.

Each type of nuclear weapon's enormous power can be explained via Einstein's famous equation E=mc2, which signifies that mass and energy are exponentially equivalent.

In both types of bombs, a very small amount of mass is transformed into a very large amount of energy — but atomic and hydrogen bombs get their power through different means.

Here are the differences between atomic and hydrogen bombs.

It all starts with nuclear fission

Atomic bombs are powered solely by nuclear fission — the splitting of atoms. Whereas hydrogen bombs get their power from a combination of fission and its opposite — nuclear fusion — the binding of atoms.

To develop a workable hydrogen bomb, mastering fission had to come first.

Fission was first discovered in 1938. Two chemists, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman, bombarded uranium with neutron particles and found that it produced an entirely different, lighter element, barium.

Puzzled at their results, Hahn consulted former colleague Lisa Meitner, who along with her nephew Otto Frisch concluded that uranium might become unstable and break apart into two, lighter pieces when hit by a neutron. This was a revelation since scientists up to that point had thought the process would produce heavier elements, not lighter ones.

Austrian physicist Lisa Meitner played a key role in the monumental discovery of nuclear fission.Bettmann / Contributor

The lighter pieces, called fission fragments, can be a number of different elements, including barium — or more dangerous isotopes like strontium-90 and cesium-137.

Meitner and Frisch also calculated the fission reaction could produce a large amount of energy — about 200 million electron volts (MeV) per uranium atom — dwarfing the 5 eV per atom produced by the most powerful chemical reactions at the time.

But where did the energy come from? Meitner calculated that when a uranium atom split into two atoms, they weighed slightly less together than the original uranium atom. The missing mass had been converted to pure energy — just as Einstein's equation predicts.
Hydrogen vs. atomic bombs: how they work

The first atomic bomb detonated for the Trinity test and the bomb dropped over Nagasaki used plutonium for fuel. Whereas the atomic bomb dropped over Hiroshima, nicknamed "Little Boy," used uranium as fuel for its fission reaction.

A simple uranium fission bomb is much easier to make than a hydrogen bomb or even a plutonium fission bomb, according to Alex Wellerstein, a nuclear weapons historian and professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology.

"My engineering students could probably do it if they had highly enriched uranium, like the Little Boy bomb — that is dead simple," Wellerstein said.

In the case of Little Boy, two separate cores of uranium were shot into each other by a conventional explosive. When the cores hit each other, it generated a chain reaction of neutrons firing, splitting billions of uranium atoms one after the other, triggering an enormous explosion.

When enough radioactive material undergoes nuclear fission, it generates a chain reaction of splitting atoms capable of generating an enormous explosion.Screen grab/Amanda Macias/Business Insider

The plutonium-powered bomb, "Fat Man," worked differently. A spherical core of plutonium was surrounded by explosives which, when fired, increased the density in the plutonium core to generate a similar chain-reaction of atom splitting and subsequent explosion.

Hydrogen bombs, also known as thermonuclear bombs, are a bit more complicated than atomic bombs — they typically use two "stages," to produce their power, through a combination of fission and fusion.

The first stage consists of a fission bomb with a core or "pit" made of plutonium or uranium, surrounded by conventional explosives, much like the original atomic bombs.

But this bomb within a bomb is "boosted" by adding hydrogen gas to the center of the core, making the fission explosion more powerful. That enormous power is essential to igniting fusion in the second stage.

In the secondary stage, X-rays from the primary fission explosion ignite the fusion fuel, consisting of lithium deuteride. Tritium is produced in the reaction.

A mushroom cloud forms after the first H-Bomb explosion in 1952.Three Lions/Getty Images

The tritium then fuses with deuterium from the lithium deuteride, releasing neutrons and energy in the process.

In the center of the fusion fuel is a uranium or plutonium "spark plug," that starts to fission due to the extreme heat and pressure — heating the hydrogen from inside and creating more fusion reactions.

The neutrons released by the fusion reaction then go on to slam into a layer of uranium that surrounds the fusion fuel, triggering even more fission reactions.

All these nuclear reactions happen in the blink of an eye, with fission and fusion each contributing about half of the total explosive power in a typical H-bomb — which can be up to 1,000 times more than atomic bombs.
Hydrogen vs. atomic bombs: damage and destruction

While atomic bomb blasts are measured in kilotons — 1 kt is equivalent to the explosive force of 1,000 tons of TNT — hydrogen bombs are often measured in megatons. One Mt is equivalent to 1,000,000 tons of TNT.

The Little Boy atomic bomb dropped over Hiroshima contained 140 pounds of uranium and produced a blast of 15 kt. The "Fat Man" bomb dropped over Nagasaki contained about 13 pounds of plutonium to produce a 21 kt blast.

The largest US thermonuclear bomb ever tested, Castle Bravo, produced a 15 Mt explosion — a whopping 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped over Hiroshima.

And the most powerful thermonuclear bomb ever — the Tsar Bomb, detonated by the Soviet Union — was 50 Mt.

The mushroom cloud caused by the Soviet Union's "Tsar Bomba" 57-megaton nuclear blast test.Minatom/Wikiepdia

Some US nuclear weapons are considered "low-yield," including a submarine-based nuclear warhead with a yield of 5 kt, while the most powerful bomb in the current US arsenal, the B83, has a yield of about 1.2 Mt.

The energy from a nuclear weapon can be broken down like this: 50% comes from the blast, 35% from heat, and 15% from nuclear radiation.

How far the effects of the blast go depends on the size of the bomb, but to put it in perspective — a 1 Mt explosion could create a one-mile diameter fireball brighter than the sun within 10 seconds, vaporizing everything within it. Even 20 miles away, the heat from the explosion could be enough to burn people and ignite fires.

Both atomic and hydrogen bombs are nuclear weapons and therefore create long-lasting, dangerous nuclear fallout.

Interestingly, though, fallout only comes from fission: "The intensity of your fallout is always going to be directly, linearly related to how much of the yield is from fission," Wellerstein said.

Fusion doesn't actually create fallout. For example, the Tsar bomb was one of the cleanest nuclear weapons ever detonated, Wellerstein said, because its explosive force came from 97% fusion.
The cost of nuclear weapons

The Manhattan Project's research, development, and production of atomic bombs cost an estimated 39 billion in 2023 US dollars to produce four atomic bombs — one tested, two dropped, and one unused.

But the atomic bombs were a bargain compared to the nuclear budget since then. Between 1940 and 1996, the US' nuclear weapons program cost an estimated 11.4 trillion in 2023 US dollars.

A naval reactor disposal site storing reactors from Los Angeles-class subs and cruisers in Hanford, Washington.Department of the Navy

However, just 7% of that cost went to actually developing, building, and testing the bombs and warheads — more than 70,000 of them in all. The rest of the budget went to deployment systems in vehicles like aircraft and submarines, command, communications, and intelligence systems involved in nuclear weapons, and for defense against nuclear attacks.

Most nuclear weapons in the US were made during the 1950s and 1960s, with production ending in 1990. Today, the US' nuclear weapon stockpile is approximately 3,700 — reduced significantly from its high of 31,255 in 1967.

Efforts focus on maintaining the stockpile and updating or refurbishing parts — for example, by replacing plutonium pits.

The estimated cost of a program to completely refurbish about 460 B61 nuclear bombs over the next 20 years is between $11.5 billion and $13 billion. If you divide that cost into 460 bombs, that comes out to about $26 million per bomb.

And the projected overall cost of the US nuclear forces from 2023-2032 is $756 billion.
Why today's nuclear arsenals are mostly hydrogen bombs

Although fission bombs are relatively simple to make, thermonuclear weapons quickly replaced them in nuclear arsenals.

"A thermonuclear weapon is much more flexible in terms of what you can do with it than a fission bomb alone, and it's also just much more compact in terms of the energy you're getting out of it," Wellerstein said.

"What you're really concerned with if you're using a nuclear warhead is how do I get it to the target? How do I get whatever amount of firepower I want from point A to point B? And so you're going to pick the option that allows you to do that with the smallest volume, the smallest weight, and the biggest sort of outcome from that," he added.

Birthplace of the atomic bomb braces for its biggest mission since the top-secret Manhattan Project

Messages left by visitors mark a chalk board at the Manhattan Project National Historical Park visitor center in Los Alamos, N.M., on Aug. 13, 2023. Almost overnight, Los Alamos was transformed to accommodate the scientists and soldiers who developed the world's first atomic bomb during World War II. The community is facing growing pains again, 80 years later, as it works to modernize the country's nuclear arsenal.

 (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)

SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN
Sat, September 23, 2023

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) — Los Alamos was the perfect spot for the U.S. government’s top-secret Manhattan Project.

Almost overnight, the ranching enclave on a remote plateau in northern New Mexico was transformed into a makeshift home for scientists, engineers and young soldiers racing to develop the world’s first atomic bomb. Dirt roads were hastily built and temporary housing came in the form of huts and tents as the outpost's population ballooned.

The community is facing growing pains again, 80 years later, as Los Alamos National Laboratory takes part in the nation's most ambitious nuclear weapons effort since World War II. The mission calls for modernizing the arsenal with droves of new workers producing plutonium cores — key components for nuclear weapons.

Some 3,300 workers have been hired in the last two years, with the workforce now topping more than 17,270. Close to half of them commute to work from elsewhere in northern New Mexico and from as far away as Albuquerque, helping to nearly double Los Alamos' population during the work week.

While advancements in technology have changed the way work is done at Los Alamos, some things remain the same for this company town. The secrecy and unwavering sense of duty that were woven into the community's fabric during the 1940s remain.

James Owen, the associate lab director for weapons engineering, has spent more than 25 years working in the nuclear weapons program.

“What we do is meaningful. This isn’t a job, it’s a vocation and there’s a sense of contribution that comes with that," Owen said in an interview with The Associated Press following a rare tour of the facility where workers are preparing to piece together plutonium cores by hand. "The downside is we can’t tell people about all the cool things we do here.”

While the priority at Los Alamos is maintaining the nuclear stockpile, the lab also conducts a range of national security work and research in diverse fields of space exploration, supercomputing, renewable energy and efforts to limit global threats from disease and cyberattacks.

The welcome sign on the way into town reads: “Where discoveries are made.”

The headline grabber, though, is the production of plutonium cores.

Lab managers and employees defend the massive undertaking as necessary in the face of global political instability. With most people in Los Alamos connected to the lab, opposition is rare.

But watchdog groups and non-proliferation advocates question the need for new weapons and the growing price tag.

“For some time Los Alamosans have seemed numbed out, very involved in superficial activities but there is a very big hole in the middle where thoughtful discourse might live,” Greg Mello, director of the Los Alamos Study Group, a nonprofit that has been challenging the lab over safety, security and budget concerns, said in an email.

Town officials are grappling with the effects of expansion at the lab, much like the military generals who scrambled to erect the secret city on the hill in 1943.

The labor market is stressed, housing is in short supply and traffic is growing. There are few options for expansion in a town bordered by the national forest, a national park and Native American land, leaving county officials to reconsider zoning rules to allow developers to be more creative with infill projects.

Still, officials acknowledge it will take time for those changes to catch up with demand and for prices to normalize in what is already one of the most affluent counties in the U.S. With the lab being the largest employer, Los Alamos also boasts the highest per-capita levels of educational attainment with many residents holding master's degrees and Ph.Ds.

Owen is originally from Peñasco, a Hispanic village in neighboring Taos County. His fascination with science was sparked by a high school field trip where he learned about explosions and implosions. It wasn't long before he landed a summer job at the lab and went on to earn engineering degrees that helped him move up through the ranks.

Los Alamos taps into regional schools as a generational pipeline. Grandfathers work as machinists. Mothers solder key components. And daughters become experts at tracking radiation.

Alexandra Martinez, 40, grew up in nearby Chimayo and is the latest in her family to work at Los Alamos. She chuckles when asked if she was born into it.

“That's what I wanted — the ability to do something great,” said Martinez, a radiation control technician who is stationed at PF-4, the highly classified complex that is being transformed into a more modern plutonium pit factory.

She must pass through fencing topped with concertina wire and checkpoints manned by armed guards. The layers of security are more sophisticated than those from the Manhattan Project era, when all incoming and outgoing mail was censored and telephone calls were monitored.

Los Alamos became an open city when the security gates came down in 1957. Still, many parts — including historic sites related to the Manhattan Project — remain off limits. Tourists have to settle for selfies near the town square with the bronze statue of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Across the street, rangers at the Manhattan Project National Historical Park visitor center answer questions about where scientists lived and where parties and town halls were held. A chalkboard hangs in the corner, covered in yellow sticky notes left by visitors. Some of the hand-written notes touch on the complicated legacy left by the creation of nuclear weapons.

It's a conversation that was reignited with the release of Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer.” The film put the spotlight on Los Alamos and its history, prompting more people to visit over the summer.

The attention also boosted an ongoing effort to expand the federal government's radiation compensation program to cover people in several western states, including residents in southern New Mexico where the Trinity Test of the first atomic bomb was conducted in 1945.

Aside from pressing questions about the morality of nuclear weapons, watchdogs argue the federal government's modernization effort already has outpaced spending predictions and is years behind schedule. Independent government analysts issued a report earlier this month that outlined the growing budget and schedule delays.

For lab managers, the task has not been easy. Modern health and safety requirements mean new constraints Manhattan Project bosses never had to contemplate. And yet, just like their predecessors, Owen said officials feel a sense of urgency amid intensifying global threats.

“What's being asked is that we all need to do better in a faster amount of time," he said.

AS AMERIKAN AS APPLE PIE

White nationalism is a political ideology that mainstreams racist conspiracy theories

Sara Kamali, Visiting Research Scholar at the Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

Sun, September 24, 2023

THE CONVERSATION

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers a prime-time speech on Sept. 1, 2022, in Philadelphia. Alex Wong/Getty Images

In September 2022, President Joe Biden convened a summit called United We Stand to denounce the “venom and violence” of white nationalism ahead of the midterm elections.

His remarks repeated the theme of his prime-time speech in Philadelphia on Sept. 1, 2022, during which he warned that America’s democratic values are at stake.

“We must be honest with each other and with ourselves,” Biden said. “Too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal. Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.”

Former President Donald Trump embraces Kari Lake, the Arizona GOP candidate for governor, at a rally on July 22, 2022. Mario Tama/Getty Images

While that message may resonate among many Democratic voters, it’s unclear whether it will have any impact on any Republicans whom Biden described as “dominated and intimidated” by former President Donald Trump, or on independent voters who have played decisive roles in elections, and will continue to do so, particularly as their numbers increase.

It’s also unclear whether Trump-endorsed candidates can win in general elections, in which they will face opposition not only from members of their own party but also from a broad swath of Democrats and independent voters.

What is clear is that this midterm election cycle has revealed the potency of conspiracy theories that prop up narratives of victimhood and messages of hate across the complex American landscape of white nationalism.
Campaigning on conspiracy theories

In my book, “Homegrown Hate: Why White Nationalists and Militant Islamists Are Waging War on the United States,” I detail how the white nationalist narrative of victimhood and particular grievances have gained traction to become ingrained in the present-day Republican Party.

I also examine four key strands of white nationalism that overlap in various configurations: religions, racism, conspiracy theories and anti-government views.

Conspiracy theories allow white nationalists to depict a world in which Black and brown people are endangering the livelihoods, social norms and morals of white people.

In general, conspiracy theories are based on the belief that individual circumstances are the result of powerful enemies actively agitating against the interests of a believing individual or group.

Based on the interviews I conducted while researching my book, these particular conspiracy theories are convenient because they justify the shared white nationalist goal of establishing institutions and territory of white people, for white people and by white people. While conspiracy theories are not new, and certainly not new to politics, they spread with increasing frequency and speed because of social media.

The “great replacement theory” is one such baseless belief that is playing a role in the anti-immigration rhetoric that is central to the 2022 strategies of many Republican candidates who are running for seats at all levels of government.

That theory erroneously warns believers of the threat that immigrants and people of color pose to white identity and institutions.

For months on the 2022 campaign trail, Republican Blake Masters, a venture capitalist who is running for a U.S. Senate seat in Arizona, has portrayed immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border as part of an elaborate plot by Democrats to dilute the political power of voters born in the United States.

“What the left really wants to do is change the demographics of this country,” Masters said in a video posted to Twitter last fall.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is another Republican leader who decries what he calls “the invasion of the southern border.”
The lie of the ‘Big Lie’

Aside from the inflammatory anti-immigration rhetoric, the conspiracy theory currently having the biggest impact on local, state and federal political campaigns across the country is Trump’s “Big Lie” that he won the 2020 election.

Donald Trump greets Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano on Sept. 3, 2022. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Of the 159 endorsements Trump has made for proponents of the Big Lie, 127 of them have won their primaries in 2022.

In addition, Republican candidates who align themselves with the Big Lie are also emerging victorious in races for state- and county-level offices whose responsibilities include direct oversight of elections.
The continuation of QAnon

On his social media site Truth Social, the former president quotes and spreads conspiracy theories from the quasi-religious QAnon. A major tenet of QAnon is the belief that the Democrats and people regarded as their liberal allies are a nefarious cabal of sexual predators and pedophiles.

Trump is not the only Republican politician who welcomes and spreads such disinformation.

Two of the most prominent politicians who have been linked to supporting QAnon are U.S. Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, both of whom have been resoundingly endorsed by Trump.
Democracies under threat

The blatant use of conspiracy theories for political gain reflects the open embrace of white nationalism in not only the United States but also throughout Sweden, France, Italy and other parts of the world.

In my view, the conspiracy theories that drive the 2022 midterm campaigns reflect the global threat of hate around the world.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. 

It was written by: Sara Kamali, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Read more:

Former Oath Keeper reveals racist, antisemitic beliefs of white nationalist group – and their plans to start a civil war

Trump’s time is up, but his Twitter legacy lives on in the global spread of QAnon conspiracy theories

A growing mistrust in democracy is causing extremism and strongman politics to flourish

How Texas became the new "homebase" for white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups

Areeba Shah

SALON
Sat, September 23, 2023 

Greg Abbott Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Texas has seen a sudden surge in extremist activity within the past three years, with white supremacist and anti-LGBTQ+ groups making the Lone Star state its base of operations.

According to a new report by the Anti-Defamation League, there has been an 89% increase in antisemitic incidents in Texas from January 2021 to May of this year. Along with six identified terrorist plots and 28 occurrences of extremist events like training sessions and rallies, Texas also saw an increase in the frequency of propaganda distribution.

"Texas has a long history of white nationalist activity and for many years has had a very active presence of white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups in the state, but the report's findings really do paint a very troubling picture of the current situation," Stephen Piggott, who studies right-wing extremism as a program analyst with the Western States Center, a civil rights group, told Salon.

"Texas is the homebase for a number of really active white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups, such as the Patriot Front and the Aryan Freedom Network."

This is one of the main factors driving extremism in the state. Patriot Front has contributed to Texas experiencing the highest number of white supremacist propaganda distributions in the United States in 2022, the report found.

The group has a "nationwide footprint," with members all around the country and their messaging contributing to 80% of nationwide propaganda in 2022 – a trend replicated every year since 2019, according to the report.

Patriot Front has also held rallies in major cities across the country, including Washington, D.C., Boston, Philadelphia and Indianapolis, where the events are frequently the largest public white supremacist gatherings.

Texas' close proximity to Mexico also makes it a hotbed for anti-immigrant activity, Piggot added, pointing to a growing number of nationalist and neo-Nazi groups focusing on immigration issues.

"They'll have rallies where a lot of the rhetoric is focused on demonizing immigrants and using dehumanizing rhetoric about immigrants," he said. "They're focused on the issue of immigration because Texas is a border state, but also an avenue for getting more recruits."

The political context further amplifies this phenomenon, Peter Simi, a sociology professor at Chapman University and an expert on white supremacists in the U.S., told Salon.

"When you look at the political context of what's happening in Texas as far as [the movement of] anti-CRT, anti-reproductive rights, anti-gay… that is extremely conducive and consistent with groups like the Patriot Front, so they kind of thrive," Simi said.

Last year, 31 members of Patriot Front were arrested near Idaho after police stopped a U-Haul truck near a "Pride in the Park" event and found members dressed uniformly and equipped with riot shields. Every present Patriot Front member was charged with criminal conspiracy to riot.

But this hasn't deterred the group from putting on public demonstrations and in many cases, even documenting them. In July, close to 100 masked group members recognized Independence Day by holding a flash demonstration in Austin while carrying riot shields, a banner reading "Reclaim America" and upside-down American flags.

"Whenever they have a gathering or any type of kind of public demonstration, they have folks filming and they put out really kind of flashy videos on social media, especially on places like Telegram and it's all designed to make it look cool and edgy," Piggot said.

Extremist groups often use online platforms to recruit and spread their ideology. Over the past year, ADL found that online hate and harassment rose sharply for adults and teens ages 13-17.

Among adults, 52% reported being harassed online in their lifetime, the highest number we have seen in four years, up from 40% in 2022, ADL spokesperson Jake Kurz said.

"Many online platforms either recommend more extreme and hateful content or make it easier to find once searched," Kurz said pointing to the report's findings. "For some, this could lead to a dark spiral into hate and extremism."

Patriot Front has emerged as one of the most aggressive groups in terms of distributing propaganda, Simi pointed out. They often even post pictures of the propaganda they've distributed online and circulate those images more broadly.

"In a nutshell, they're trying to really be aggressive in establishing a physical presence through [distributing] flyers as well as through actual demonstrations," Simi said. "They've also been known to do these flash mob style demonstrations and sometimes more coordinated demonstrations where they've shown up in places, like our nation's capital."

As a part of their recruitment strategies, white supremacist groups have consistently targeted the LGBTQ+ community, disrupting drag shows, targeting pride events and even going after businesses that support LGBTQ+ events. They have used slurs like "groomers" when talking about the LGBTQ+ community to draw more individuals to their movement.

"The anti-LGBTQ+ animus is probably the single greatest driver of white nationalist and anti-democracy activity that we're seeing across the country right now," Piggot said.

ADL tracked 22 anti-LGBTQ+ incidents in 2022 across Texas. While some actions involved extremists, others engaged more mainstream anti-LGBTQ+ entities, offering extremists opportunities to expose new audiences to different forms of hate.

"Hate and extremism seem to be a growing issue across the United States," Kurz said. "The number of antisemitic incidents across the country are the highest we have ever measured. Instances of white supremacist propaganda are high and we are seeing an alarming amount of violence motivated by hate and misinformation."

Kurz added that people should look at the Texas report and recognize that while some of the types of extremism are different, extremism is a problem in every community in the country.

The communities that are being targeted in Texas mirror those targeted nationwide, said Rachel Carroll Rivas, deputy director for research, reporting and analysis at the SPLC.

"Some of the real intense false conspiracies that circulate around QAnon are resulting in an increase in the sovereign citizen movement – a conspiratorial movement that is not followed and and even recognized a lot in the U.S.," Carroll Rivas said.

Other trends in Texas that are indicative of broader extremism patterns in the country include the targeting of school curriculums, she added.

The reason why these groups feel comfortable operating in Texas is because of the role that elected officials in the state are playing in "echoing white nationalist talking points," Piggot said.

He pointed to Texas Governor Greg Abbott's extreme anti-immigrant actions, putting up barbed wire across the Rio Grande and a chain of buoys with circular saws.

"Governor Abbott is essentially doing the work for white nationalists by echoing and then amplifying their dehumanizing rhetoric," Piggot said. "Just this week, he declared an invasion [at the border]. That's a phrase that white nationalists have used to describe what's happening on the U.S. [and] Mexico border for decades."

In both Texas and Florida, neo-Nazis and white nationalists are "feeling energized" and have increased their activities due to seeing this type of messaging from Abbot and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, he added.

"We need elected officials to be closing the political space for these groups and denouncing them instead of amplifying their messages for them," Piggot said.

‘Strange Fruit on Display In Houston’: Activists Remove Bizarre, Racist Halloween Decorations Depicting Black Bodies Hanging from Trees In Black Neighborhood

Yasmeen Freightman
Sat, September 23, 2023 

Public outcry brought Houston-area activists to one predominantly Black neighborhood to remove a very bizarre and offensive set of Halloween decorations that resembled Black bodies hanging upside down from trees.

The Houston Chronicle reported that the decorations were hung from a tree in front of a home in the Third Ward community. Community members called for the removal of the decorations, stating their imagery mimics public lynchings.

Community activists removed a bizarre and “racist” set of Halloween decorations that one Houston-area homeowner put up outside his home on trees on city property. (Photo: Instagram/candicematthewsdr)

A neighbor told the Chronicle they were put up last week by one homeowner. Many neighbors know the homeowner puts up Halloween decorations every year, but they called this year’s display “immeasurably insensitive and racist.” Community activists and city officials were notified the Saturday that followed.

Related: ‘Makes Me Sick’: Nebraska School District Condemns Racist Homecoming Proposal That References Cotton-Picking

Houston City Council member Carolyn Evans-Shabazz visited the home to speak with the homeowner and tell him the display was hanging from trees that were on city property. He told her they were merely “Halloween decorations.”

“I told him they were offensive. He did not care,” Evans-Shabazz said. “I told him he’s in a predominantly African-American neighborhood, and when people are offended, sometimes things happen. But he didn’t seem to care. He was very abrasive.”

Community activist Quanell X also tried to speak with the homeowner but was unsuccessful in his attempts. He went to the home accompanied by another popular Houston activist, Candice Matthews. Both characterized the display as “racist.”

Before the decorations were cut down, Quanell X brought a lawyer to confirm that the decorations were on city property. The Houston Police Department also confirmed they were hung from trees on city property.

Watch video of the decorations here.

“Every Houstonian, Texan and American should be outraged by the ‘strange fruit’ displayed in Houston,” Houston NAACP president James Dixon said.

The NAACP Houston Branch also released a statement denouncing the display.

“It is our position that leading citizens in our city should join us in condemning this behavior whenever it arises, emphasizing that this doesn’t reflect the spirit of Houston’s respect for all people of every race,” the statement read.

“I don’t know what his intentions were, but they were cut down, so to speak,” Shabazz told the Chronicle. “I assume that if he puts them back up, they’re going to get cut back down

Government should pay compensation for secretive Cold War-era testing, St. Louis victims say

JIM SALTER
Sun, September 24, 2023 





Cold War-Secret Spraying-St. Louis

Dynamite brings down some of Pruitt-Igoe in April 1972 in St. Louis. Demolition of the 33-building complex had begun two months before.

 (Michael J. Baldridge/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Ben Phillips’ childhood memories include basketball games with friends, and neighbors gathering in the summer shade at their St. Louis housing complex. He also remembers watching men in hazmat suits scurry on the roofs of high-rise buildings as a dense material poured into the air.

“I remember the mist,” Phillips, now 73, said. “I remember what we thought was smoke rising out of the chimneys. Then there were machines on top of the buildings that were spewing this mist.”

As Congress considers payments to victims of Cold War-era nuclear contamination in the St. Louis region, people who were targeted for secret government testing from that same time period believe they’re due compensation, too.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the Army used blowers on top of buildings and in the backs of station wagons to spray a potential carcinogen into the air surrounding a St. Louis housing project where most residents were Black. The government contends the zinc cadmium sulfide sprayed to simulate what would happen in a biological weapons attack was harmless.

Phillips and Chester Deanes disagree. The men who grew up at the Pruitt-Igoe housing complex are now leading the charge seeking compensation and further health studies that could determine whether the secretive testing contributed to various illnesses or premature deaths that some Pruitt-Igoe residents later suffered.

“We were experimented on,” Phillips said. “That was a plan. And it wasn’t an accident.”

The new push comes as federal lawmakers are weighing compensation for people claiming harm from other government actions — and inactions — during the Cold War.

The Associated Press reported in July that the government and companies responsible for nuclear bomb production and atomic waste storage sites in and near St. Louis were aware of health risks, spills and other problems, but often ignored them. Many believe the nuclear waste was responsible for the deaths of loved ones and ongoing health problems.

The AP report, part of a collaboration with The Missouri Independent and the nonprofit newsroom MuckRock, examined documents obtained by outside researchers through the Freedom of Information Act.

Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley introduced legislation soon after the news reports calling for expansion of an existing compensation program for exposure victims. The Senate endorsed the amendment. While the House has yet to vote, Democratic President Joe Biden said last month that he was “prepared to help in terms of making sure that those folks are taken care of.”

Former residents of Pruitt-Igoe say they should be taken care of, too.

Phillips and Deanes, 75, are co-founders of PHACTS, which stands for Pruitt-Igoe Historical Accounting, Compensation, and Truth Seeking. Their attorney, Elkin Kistner, said it would be “appropriate and necessary” for Hawley's proposal to be widened to include former Pruitt-Igoe residents.

The government released documents in 1994 revealing details about the spraying. And St. Louis wasn't alone in being subjected to secretive Cold War-era testing. Similar spraying occurred at nearly three dozen other locations.

There were other types of secret testing. In a 2017 book, St. Louis sociologist Lisa Martino-Taylor cited documents obtained through a FOIA request to detail how pregnant women in several cities were given doses of radioactive iron during prenatal visits to determine how much was absorbed into the blood of the mothers and babies. The government also created radiation fields inside buildings, including a California high school.

The area of the testing in St. Louis was described in Army documents as “a densely populated slum district.” About three-quarters of the residents were Black.

“We were living in so-called poverty,” Deanes said. "That's why they did it. They have been experimenting on those living on the edge since I’ve known America. And of course they could get away with it because they didn’t tell anyone.”

Pruitt-Igoe was built in the 1950s with the promise of a new and better life for lower income residents. The project failed and was demolished in the 1970s.

Despite the ultimate demise, Deanes and Phillips said that through their youth, Pruitt-Igoe was a welcoming place. Yet over the years, both men cited countless premature deaths and unusual illnesses among relatives and friends who once lived at Pruitt-Igoe.

Phillips' mother died of cancer and a sister suffered from convulsions that puzzled her doctors, he said. Phillips himself lost hearing in one ear due to a benign tumor. Deanes' brother battled health problems for years and died of heart failure.

Both men wonder if the spraying was responsible.

A government study found that in a worst-case scenario, “repeated exposures to zinc cadmium sulfide could cause kidney and bone toxicity and lung cancer.” Yet the Army contends there is no evidence anyone in St. Louis was harmed.

A spokesperson for the Army said in a statement to the AP that health assessments performed by the Army “concluded that exposure would not pose a health risk," and follow-up independent studies also found no cause for alarm.

Phillips and Deane believe the previous health studies were half-hearted. In addition to a new health study, they'd like to see soil tested to see if any radioactive material was part of the spraying.

It's unclear if Hawley's bill might be expanded. Messages left with his office were not returned.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Cori Bush of St. Louis said in a statement that she and her staff "are currently looking into alternative pathways that the federal government can take to ensure those impacted by the spraying of radioactive compounds and biochemicals in Pruitt-Igoe are also addressed.”

Deanes and Phillips say that in addition to compensation and more detailed studies, they want an apology.

“This shouldn’t go on," Deanes said. "How are we supposed to be the leader of the free world and this is the way we conduct ourselves with our own citizens?”