Conservatives programed to trigger at words "Black Lives Matter" by Russian trolls.

hanimmal

Well-Known Member
https://www.rawstory.com/christopher-rufo-2667331493/
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The right-wing activist who has cooked up messaging strategies against critical race theory and other hot-button culture war issues has close ties to a "dissident right" magazine that undermines liberal democracy and lavishes praise on authoritarian leaders.

Chris Rufo, a frequent Fox News guest who has the ear of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump, contributes to the far-right IM-1776 magazine and maintains an explicitly collaborative and supportive relationship with its editors and writers, including would-be “warlord” Charles Haywood who leads a network of armed extremists bent on ending liberal ideals, reported The Guardian.

"[IM-1776's] editors and writers — many of them so-called 'anons' working under pseudonyms — have variously advocated for the repeal of the Civil Rights Act; celebrated figures such as the 'Unabomber' Ted Kaczynski and the proto-fascist Italian nationalist Gabriele D’Annunzio; and advanced conspiracy theories about the Covid pandemic, and what they term the 'regime', a leftist power structure that they imagine unites the state, large corporations, universities and the media," the newspaper reported.

The outlet ran a "manifesto" by Rufo called "The New Right Activism" last month in both its online and print versions, and he has publicly urged his followers to buy and subscribe to IM-1776. He said during one of the Twitter spaces he's co-hosted with the magazine's editors that he hoped to incorporate the "dissident right" into mainstream conservatism.

“I think there is a room for engaging the dissident right and the establishment right," Rufo said. "I think we need to have a bridge between the two and engage in thoughtful dialogue.”

Haywood, a former shampoo manufacturer turned wannabe warlord, contributes to IM-1776 and apparently helps fund its publication, has published six bylined articles on the website using eliminationist rhetoric against his enemies and calls for “the total, permanent defeat of the left, of the ideology at the heart of the Enlightenment."

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"Our society is commanded to excise the limitless, satanic evils brought on us by the left," he said in one published conversation with IM-1776 regular Daniel Miller.

Haywood gave a glowing review of Rufo’s book, "America’s Cultural Revolution," saying that, “We might have to accept we can’t live with these people, the five or ten percent of our nation who lead or are most active in supporting the left," and then calls for the repeal of the “so-called Civil Rights Act."

The magazine champions El Salvador president Nayib Bukele, a scheduledspeaker this week at CPAC, for suspending civil liberties in 2022 to crack down on alleged gang members, which resulted in the arrest of 75,000 people without charge, and IM-1776 founder and editor-in-chief Mark Granza wished an American president would do the same to non-conservatives.

“America needs its own Bukele. Build massive prisons and start by throwing in every single regime apparatchik," wrote Granza, an Italian national living in Hungary, in a Twitter post last March.

Conservative columnist Rod Dreher interviewed Granza last February for the Hungarian Conservative, an outlet aligned with the authoritarian leader Viktor Orbán.

“[Rufo]e doesn’t care about convincing the other side, or battling in the ‘marketplace of ideas,'" Granza said. "He’s going to tell you what he’s going to do, and then do it, whether you agree with him or not. That’s what I believe conservatives should do: use whatever power they have or can get and impose their views on to society.”
 

hanimmal

Well-Known Member
https://apnews.com/article/trump-milei-bukele-latin-america-conservatives-republicans-0215b7fdea225a0ca2cddfbebbd2438a
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OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — On a recent evening outside Washington, the president of Argentina had the eyes and ears of a conservative crowd that had gathered to listen to Donald Trump. In a raspy voice, Javier Milei called out, “Hola a todos,” or “Hello, everyone,” before introducing himself as a lion.

“What a beautiful day to make the left tremble,” Milei joked.

His eccentrics may have seemed novel to those in the crowd unfamiliar with how he has used lions as his brand to symbolize his fierce stance against socialism, but the far-right populist has become well-known among Latinos in the United States since winning the presidency last year. He was joined at the Conservative Political Action Conference by El Salvador’s millennial president, Nayib Bukele, who delighted the crowd with a speech in fluent English deriding philanthropist George Soros and “globalism.”

The Republican Party is aligning with some Latin American populists as a way of injecting star power and the political landscape of immigrants’ home countries into this year’s U.S. election. Having made inroads with Cuban and Venezuelan Americans in South Florida by attacking the self-declared socialist leaders of those countries, GOP leaders are replicating that model by promoting ties between Trump and leaders who are well known by Spanish-speaking voters across the country.

Mercedes Schlapp, a former Trump White House aide, told Spanish-language newscasters that Democrats have been nurturing the Latino vote for a long time, but when Trump was seeking reelection in 2020, he told his strategists to “do whatever you can to get the Latino vote.” Schlapp said that pursuing the popular elected leaders to join the recent conservative gathering is part of that effort.

At nearly 2.5 million people, Salvadorans outnumber Cubans in the U.S., according to the Pew Hispanic Research Center. The Argentine diaspora is much smaller. But both Bukele and Milei have grabbed the attention of immigrants from Latin America as populist counterweights to the leftist strongmen scattered across Central and South America.

Jose Aliaga, a Peruvian immigrant who attended CPAC as a Republican leader of a township in Michigan, compared Bukele after his speech to Trump, who is closing in on his third GOP nomination and a rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden.

“Not only does Bukele say all the right things, he has results to show,” Aliaga said. “Bukele and Trump have the same message. They want to stop crime, they want to improve the economy, offer more jobs and give everyone the opportunity to get ahead.

“They both want to rule with an iron fist, but one speaks Spanish and the other speaks English,” he said.

Milei campaigned with a chainsaw as his prop to campaign on drastic cuts in Argentina and has declared his admiration for Trump. Milei didn’t bring the chainsaw to CPAC, but when he saw Trump between their speeches, Milei rushed to Trump screaming “president!” and gave him a close hug before they posed for pictures. According to a video posted by one of his aides, Trump told him, “Make Argentina Great Again,” referencing Milei’s Trump-inspired campaign slogan.

The day before his visit, Milei met in Buenos Aires with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other Biden administration officials. According to one of Milei’s ministers, U.S. Ambassador Marc Stanley, a Texas lawyer and Democratic donor, tried to dissuade Milei from appearing alongside Trump, saying CPAC was a “very political” event.

The State Department didn’t respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires said, “We make no comments on private meetings.”

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a Cuban American who has endorsed Trump, traveled to Argentina’s Casa Rosada last week to meet Milei and asked him to autograph a mug with the slogan “No hay plata,” for “There is no money,” which Milei used in campaign to say the country will no longer subsidize public programs.

Eduardo Verástegui is a conservative activist who rose to fame in the 1990s as a Mexican telenovela heartthrob and tried to run independently for Mexico’s presidency. He describes Trump as a friend and was invited in 2020 to advise him on Hispanic issues.

“Having them here on an election year is unique. It can awaken the Hispanic community in the U.S.,” Verástegui said. “I think this could be a turning point.”

Maca Casado, a spokeswoman for Biden’s campaign, criticized Trump’s plan to appeal to Latinos, saying his policies as president and proposals as candidates are anti-immigrant.

“We are talking about a man who has consistently demonized Latinos for his political gain, who used his time in office to attack the Latino community, who has even parroted dictators and said immigrants were poisoning the blood of the country,” Casado said in a statement. “Our community knows the truth: The party of Trump doesn’t give a damn about Latinos.”

Benjamin Gedan, director of the Latin America Program at the Washington-based Wilson Center, warned that these leaders are “either intentionally antagonizing the White House or making an easily avoidable diplomatic misstep.”

Bukele was perhaps even more popular at CPAC, followed by dozens of supporters after his speech Thursday who were blowing horns and shouting his name.

A Spanish-language journalist from Voz Media, a conservative outlet based in Texas, approached Bukele to ask questions about Biden and Trump. Bukele said the Biden administration “has not been interested in working with us.” He said the relations between the two countries under Trump were “much better,” but he stopped short of throwing his support for Trump. “I leave that to the people.”

Bukele has become massively popular in El Salvador, as a result of his war on gangs that has led to 76,000 detentions, and among Salvadorans in the U.S., who can be found in large numbers in California, Texas and New York.

Bukele made a point in his speech to call out the Clinton administration for deporting members of a gang that was formed in the U.S. by Salvadorans who had immigrated escaping the 1979-1992 civil war. That gang was MS-13, which is often misunderstood as having been founded in El Salvador.

A Bukele adviser said the leader wanted to come to speak to conservatives to promote his efforts to turn around El Salvador. Homicide rates have fallen sharply and the country went from being one of the most violent to one of the safest in the Americas.

In a hotel right across the venue where conservatives met, two hotel maids knew exactly the time Bukele was set to appear and were hoping to catch a glimpse of the leader, saying their native El Salvador had changed.

When asked if they were equally excited to see Trump, they smiled and shook their heads.
 

hanimmal

Well-Known Member
https://apnews.com/article/alabama-voting-rights-black-voters-congress-19ded57858f3194634be74894c9f1f01
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MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — More than 6,000 voters in a newly formed congressional district drawn to heighten Black voting power in Alabama received postcards with incorrect voting information ahead of Tuesday’s primary, alarming advocates concerned about the potential impact on a race seen as crucial to boosting Black representation and Democrats’ hopes to flip the U.S. House in November.

James Snipes, chair of the Montgomery County Board of Registrars, said 6,593 county voters received postcards listing the incorrect congressional district after the county’s election software misidentified some people living in the 2nd Congressional District as living in the 7th.

Snipes said voters arriving at the polls were still able to vote for the correct candidates. The county had sent about 2,000 notices to affected voters as of Tuesday evening and will send out an additional 4,000 on Wednesday, he said.

“Everyone who came to their precinct was able to vote for the correct candidates,” Snipes said, attributing the incorrect information to a “software glitch” made when adjusting to the recent shift in state congressional districts. “This was a good-faith effort.”

Montgomery County, home to about 159,000 registered voters, now falls in the 2nd Congressional District after a federal court drew new congressional lines in November. That was in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the state had diluted the voting power of Black residents, violating the Voting Rights Act.

The three-judge panel decided that Alabama, which is 27% Black, should have a second district where Black voters comprise a large share of the population. The move has sparked a congested and competitive primary contest as Democrats hope to flip the congressional seat in the fall.

The redrawn map could lead to the election of two Black congressional representatives from the state for the first time. After the districts were redrawn, Black residents will comprise nearly 49% of the 2nd district’s voting-age population, up from less than one-third.

“For many Black voters in that district, this is the first election where they have the opportunity to elect a representative who looks like them,” said Camille Wimbish, national director of campaigns and field programs for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “This could have caused many Black Alabamans to just stay home and not vote at all.”

State Rep. Napoleon Bracy Jr., one of 11 Democratic candidates running in the 2nd District primary, said “it is disappointing to see that voters in Montgomery County are facing classic disenfranchisement.” He noted it came days after the state marked an anniversary of key events that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act.

Election officials caught an error in the cards sent to voters in January and attempted to update their systems so voters would be listed in the correct congressional district, said Snipes, of the county elections board.

“We thought we had it all fixed,” he said, adding that officials didn’t realize that more voters had been affected. “We can’t figure out how the software did that to us.”

Laney Rawls, executive assistant for Alabama’s secretary of state, said the office was not involved in sending the postcards to voters.

It was one of the few issues reported on Super Tuesday, the biggest day of the primary calendar. Only sporadic voting problems surfaced, most of which were resolved quickly. In Texas’ Travis County, which includes Austin, some voters had problems checking in when they tried to cast their ballots.

The Travis County Clerk’s Office said about 1% of registered voters were affected. Officials blamed a “data issue” but did not offer more details. Affected voters were asked to either wait while the problem was resolved or were told they could cast a provisional ballot if they couldn’t wait.

“Our team quickly identified the issue and pushed out a solution,” the clerk’s office said in an email.
 

hanimmal

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https://www.rawstory.com/a-new-orleans-neighborhood-confronts-the-racist-legacy-of-a-toxic-stretch-of-highway-2667532810/
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Aside from a few discarded hypodermic needles on the ground, the Hunter’s Field Playground in New Orleans looks almost untouched. It’s been open more than nine years, but the brightly painted red and yellow slides and monkey bars are still sleek and shiny, and the padded rubber tiles feel springy underfoot.

For people who live nearby, it’s no mystery why the equipment is in relatively pristine shape: Children don’t come here to play.

“Because kids are smart,” explained Amy Stelly, an artist and urban designer who lives about a block away on Dumaine Street. “It’s the adults who aren’t. It’s the adults who built the playground under the interstate.”

Hunter’s Field is wedged directly beneath the elevated roadbeds of the Claiborne Expressway section of Interstate 10 in the city’s 7th Ward.

There are no sounds of laughter or children playing. The constant cuh-clunk, cuh-clunk of the traffic passing overhead makes it difficult to hold a conversation with someone standing next to you. An average of 115,000 vehicles a day use the overpass, according to a 2012 study.

“I have never seen a child play here,” Stelly said.

Stelly keeps a sharp eye on this area as part of her advocacy work with the Claiborne Avenue Alliance, a group of residents and business owners dedicated to revitalizing the predominantly African American community on either side of the looming expressway.

For as long as she can remember, Stelly has been fighting to dismantle that section of the highway. She’s lived in the neighborhood her entire life and said the noise is oftentimes unbearable. “You can sustain hearing damage,” she said. Now, she’s helping collect new noise and air pollution data to show it needs to be taken down.

The Claiborne Expressway was built in the 1960s, when the construction of interstates and highways was a symbol of progress and economic development in the U.S.

But that supposed progress often came at a great cost for marginalized communities — especially predominantly Black neighborhoods.

When it was built, the “Claiborne Corridor,” as it’s still sometimes known, tore through the heart of Tremé, one of the nation’s oldest Black neighborhoods.

For more than a century before the construction of the expressway, bustling Claiborne Avenue constituted the backbone of economic and cultural life for Black New Orleans. Back then, the oak-lined avenue was home to more than 120 businesses. Today, only a few dozen remain.

What happened to Claiborne Avenue isn’t unique. Federal planners often routed highways directly through low-income minority neighborhoods, dividing communities and polluting the air.

In Montgomery, Alabama, I-85 cut through the city’s only middle-class Black neighborhood and was “designed to displace and punish the organizers of the civil rights movement,” according to Rebecca Retzlaff, a community planning professor at Auburn University. In Nashville, planners intentionally looped I-40 around a white community, and sent it plowing through a prominent Black neighborhood, knocking down hundreds of homes and businesses. Examples like this exist in major cities across the country.

The federal government has started working on ways to confront the damage highway construction continues to do to low-income and minority communities. An initiative established in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act called the Reconnecting Communities Pilot seeks to do just that: reconnect neighborhoods and communities that were divided by infrastructure.

But there’s wide disagreement on the best way to do that, and some strategies are likely to do little to limit the health effects of living near these highways. What’s unfolding in New Orleans shows how challenging it is to pick and fund projects that will help.

Competing Visions for the Claiborne Expressway

Stelly’s group, the Claiborne Avenue Alliance, submitted a proposal for Reconnecting Communities Pilot money. It wanted $1.6 million in federal funds primarily for public engagement, data collection, and feasibility planning to work to assess whether it would be possible to remove the expressway altogether, with a plan to raise $400,000 more to cover costs.

And it seemed possible its grant proposal would succeed, since even the White House cited the Claiborne Expressway as a textbook example of the biased planning history in a published statement about the Reconnecting Communities Pilot. Ultimately, though, the federal Department of Transportation, the agency charged with allocating the program’s money, denied the Claiborne Avenue Alliance’s grant request.

Instead, the Department of Transportation offered a small fraction of the money requested in a competing joint proposal made by the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana. That plan called for a $47 million grant from Reconnecting Communities to do overpass improvements, remove some on- and off-ramps, and, most significantly, create the “Claiborne Innovation District” to promote public life and cultural activities under the highway. DOT granted just $500,000 for the project.

Stelly said she likes a few aspects of the city-state proposal, notably the plan to remove on- and off-ramps to improve pedestrian safety beneath the expressway and other public safety projects, like better lighting and dedicated pedestrian and bicycle lanes.

But, notably, Stelly called the idea of creating an entertainment space and market beneath the highway misguided and ridiculous. Would it be a waste of scarce government funds?

“It’s a foolish idea because you’re going to be exposed to the same thing” as the neglected playground, Stelly said. “You’re going to be exposed to the same levels of noise. It’s not a wise decision to build anything under here.”

Using Science to Inform Policy

Since her group’s proposal was denied, Stelly and her organization are turning to a new strategy: helping with a new study funded by the Environmental Protection Agency on the expressway’s health impacts. They hope the data will support them in their efforts to remove the highway from their neighborhood.

In addition to noise impacts, the EPA-funded study is looking at the health impacts of pollution under the Claiborne Expressway — especially harmful pollutants like particulate matter 2.5, or PM 2.5.

These microscopic particles, measuring 2.5 microns or less in diameter, are released from the tailpipes of passing vehicles, said Adrienne Katner, an associate professor at the Louisiana State University School of Public Health, who is the principal investigator on the EPA study. They’re so small that, when inhaled, they lodge deep in the lungs. From there, they can migrate to the circulatory system, and then spread and potentially affect every system in the body.

“So the heart, the brain,” said Katner. “If a woman is pregnant, it can cross the placental barrier. So it has a lot of impacts.”

Katner and her team of researchers are beginning the study by taking preliminary readings with monitors at different points along the expressway. Completing the research and publishing the data will likely take two to three years.

One of Katner’s monitoring sites is Hunter’s Field Playground. Graduate researcher Jacquelynn Mornay said the noise levels registered there could cause permanent hearing damage after an hour or so of exposure. The pollution levels recorded hover around 18 micrograms per cubic meter.

“It should be at most — at most — 12,” said Beatrice Duah, another graduate student researcher. “So it is way over the limits.”

Residents and workers occupying the homes and businesses lining the area under the expressway are exposed daily to these levels of noise and pollution. When complete, this EPA study will join a decades-long body of research about how traffic pollution affects the human body.

“We’re not inventing the science here,” Katner said. “All I’m doing is showing them what we already know and then documenting it, giving them the data to then inform and influence policy. That’s all I can do.”

‘Removal Is the Only Cure’

Eventually, the study’s findings could help other communities divided by infrastructure across the country, Katner said.

“A lot of cities are going through this right now and they’re looking back at their highway systems,” she said. “They’re looking back at the impacts that it’s had on a community and they’re trying to figure out what to do next. I’m hoping that this project will inform them.”

Amy Stelly said she’s always known the air she and her neighbors breathe isn’t safe, but she’s hopeful that having concrete data to support her efforts will do more to persuade policymakers to address the problem. That could mean taking down the dangerous on- and off-ramps — or scrapping what she considers to be the wasteful plan of putting a market and event space under the highway overpass.

Stelly sees only one true solution to the problems posed by the Claiborne Expressway, only one way to really right the wrongs done to her community.

“Removal is the only cure,” Stelly said. “I’m insisting on it because I’m a resident of the neighborhood and I live with this every day.” And, she said, “the science tells us there’s no other way.”
 

hanimmal

Well-Known Member
https://apnews.com/article/mississippi-goon-squad-sentencing-d2eb6ba7e2f337ac1f17035cc97f2934Screen Shot 2024-03-19 at 12.42.10 PM.png
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A former Mississippi sheriff’s deputy was sentenced Tuesday to about 20 years in prison for his part in torturing two Black men last year after a neighbor complained that the men were staying in a home with a white woman.

Hunter Elward was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Tom Lee, who handed down a 241-month sentence. Lee is also due to sentence five other former law enforcement officers who admitted to subjecting Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker to numerous acts of racist torture.

Before sentencing, Lee called Elward’s crimes “egregious and despicable,” and said a “sentence at the top of the guidelines range is justified — is more than justified.” He continued: “It’s what the defendant deserves. It’s what the community and the defendant’s victims deserve.”

In January 2023, the group of six burst into a Rankin County home without a warrant and assaulted Jenkins and Parker with stun guns, a sex toy and other objects. Elward admitted to shoving a gun into Jenkins’ mouth and firing in a “mock execution” that went awry.

The terror began on Jan. 24, 2023, with a racist call for extrajudicial violence.

A white person phoned Rankin County Deputy Brett McAlpin and complained that two Black men were staying with a white woman at a house in Braxton, Mississippi. McAlpin told Deputy Christian Dedmon, who texted a group of white deputies so willing to use excessive force they called themselves “The Goon Squad.”

Once inside, they handcuffed Jenkins and his friend Parker and poured milk, alcohol and chocolate syrup over their faces. They forced them to strip naked and shower together to conceal the mess. They mocked the victims with racial slurs and shocked them with stun guns.

After a mock execution went awry when Jenkins was shot in the mouth, they devised a coverup that included planting drugs and a gun. False charges stood against Jenkins and Parker for months.

Ahead of sentencing, Jenkins and Parker called for the “stiffest of sentences” at a news conference Monday.

“It’s been very hard for me, for us,” Jenkins said. “We are hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.”

Jenkins suffered a lacerated tongue and broken jaw. He still has trouble speaking and eating.

Malik Shabazz, an attorney representing both men, said the result of the sentencing hearings could have national implications.

“Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker continue to suffer emotionally and physically since this horrific and bloody attack by Rankin County deputies,” Shabazz said. “A message must be sent to police in Mississippi and all over America, that level of criminal conduct will be met with the harshest of consequences.”

Months before federal prosecutors announced charges in August 2023, an investigation by The Associated Press linked some of the deputies to at least four violent encounters with Black men since 2019 that left two dead and another with lasting injuries.

The officers charged include McAlpin, Dedmon, Elward, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke of the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department and Joshua Hartfield, a Richland police officer. They pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy against rights, obstructions of justice, deprivation of rights under color of law, discharge of a firearm under a crime of violence, and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Court papers identified Hunter Elward as one of the Goon Squad members. The others identified as part of the squad were Middleton and Opdyke.

Most of their lawyers did not respond to emails requesting comment Monday. Jason Kirschberg, representing Opdyke, said: “Daniel has accepted responsibility for his actions, and his failures to act. ... He has admitted he was wrong and feels deep remorse for the pain he caused the victims.”

On the federal charges, Elward faced a maximum sentence of 120 years plus life in prison and $2.75 million in fines, as does Dedmon. Hartfield faces a possible sentence of 80 years and $1.5 million, McAlpin faces 90 years and $1.75 million, Middleton faces 80 years and $1.5 million, and Opdyke could be sentenced to 100 years with a $2 million fine.

The former officers agreed to prosecutor-recommended sentences ranging from five to 30 years in state court, but time served for separate convictions at the state level will run concurrently with the potentially longer federal sentences.

The majority-white Rankin County is just east of the state capital, Jackson, home to one of the highest percentages of Black residents of any major U.S. city.

The officers warned Jenkins and Parker to “stay out of Rankin County and go back to Jackson or ‘their side’ of the Pearl River,” court documents say, referencing an area with higher concentrations of Black residents.

In the gruesome crimes committed by men tasked with enforcing the law, federal prosecutors saw echoes of Mississippi’s dark history, including the 1964 killing of three civil rights workers after a deputy handed them off to the Ku Klux Klan.

For months, Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey, whose deputies committed the crimes, said little about the episode. After the officers pleaded guilty in August, Bailey said the officers had gone rogue and promised to change the department. Jenkins and Parker have called for his resignation, and they have filed a $400 million civil lawsuit against the department.
 
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