Reading Log: March 22, 2022

Although links get more views with individual posts, I think it's helpful just to keep things together. A couple of items got my attention over the weekend.

David French

Here's conservative commentator David French linking covid denial/vaccine refusal, January 6, and support for Russia all as a big middle finger to "the narrative" we encounter from experts and mainstream media. In "What the Russian Invasion Teaches Us about the Right," we find this brilliant line, "Contrarians aren’t critical thinkers. They’re gullible reactionaries, vulnerable to conspiracy theories."

French still lives in a very right wing world, or what used to be the right wing, but this piece is insightful. Why he wouldn't include climate change denial, I have no idea. 

Russian Fascism and American Fascism

I grew up in the militarized, patriotic South, where we could valorize Stonewall Jackson and George Patton with no sense of contradiction. That was and is problematic, but we had a sense that democracy was worth defending. That's why I've been so troubled by Trumpist devotion to Russia and Hungary, not to mention US betrayal of our Kurdish, Afghan, Syrian, and Iraqi allies. But I digress.

What we're seeing is a form of globalized fascism, in which authoritarians look out for one another. That's why India and China are helping Putin despite his criminal actions in Ukraine. It's why Trump embraced every authoritarian under the sun.

In an 8-minute video Mehdi Hassan unpacks the philosophical underpinnings of Putin's philosophy. From what I'm reading, especially from historian Timothy Snyder, this analysis is spot on. Putin literally distributes books by a Russian one-time Nazi, Ivan Ilyan, once exile but now with a Putin-approved statue.

Christian Nationalism

Bad news: Christian nationalists are getting increasingly radicalized and authoritarian.

Sexless

Kids these days. Recently I was in a conversation where some grumpy old men were grousing about immorality among the youth. I don't buy that line at all, especially since the generation my age and up has basically pillaged the planet and seems determined to keep it that way. 

But we should all be concerned how little sex younger Americans are having. Today's more permissive sexual culture is not making people happier. In fact, it's leading to less sexual intimacy, even less solo sex, than used to be the case. In the New York Times Michele Goldberg offers a sympathetic but critical read of Rethtinking Sex: A Provocation by Christine Emba that's worth a conversation. I'm not saying more sex is always a good thing, but loneliness sure isn't.

It's funny how often our conversations about sex and morality react against "traditional Christian values." But nobody's reading contemporary theological ethicists, who have lots of good things to say. I'll just note one contribution Christian ethics could make to our conversations about sex: sex is social and political as much as it is personal. Feminists used to say this a lot.

GOP So Far Down the Rabbit Hole

I've had a tendency to pepper social media with evidence of the danger our democracy faces, in large part because the Republican Party embraces radicalism and devalues human dignity and participatory democracy. Sometimes I just keep news links open to remind myself how ridiculous it's gotten.

Every once in awhile, it's time to vent. Some recent examples.

They Can't Freeze Out January 6 

Generally speaking, the Republican Party would like simply to forget about January 6. So much so that the party that ran eight congressional investigations of the Benghazi disaster has disowned party members who participate in the House investigation. 

But why? Because so much of their base wants revolt. The Party has been nurturing this sedition at least since armed Ammon Bundy and his group survived two armed standoffs with law enforcement officers. But a January poll indicated that 1 out of 5 Republican men believe violence against the government is justified right now. 

Imagine where the Republicans would be without all those treasonous men. We even have a Supreme Court justice whose spouse attended January 6 events with the intention of cancelling the 2020 election results. Ginni Thomas denies having participated in the planning.

Embrace of Explicit Racists

It's no longer a problem when GOP politicians embrace white supremacists. Idaho Governor Janice McGeachin and Georgia US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene have both appeared on platforms provided by explicit racist Nick Fuentes. Both Green and McGeachin denied knowing about Fuentes and his activities. Fuentes promotes the "Great Replacement Reality" on his talk show and has tweeted,

If you are a White male zoomer, remember that the people in power hate you and your unborn children and they will try to genocide you in your lifetime.

Here's a recent Fuentes "joke":

Now they’re going on about Russia and Vladimir Putin is Hitler—and they say that’s not a good thing.

Yet somehow these professional politicians know nothing about the guy who organized their appearances.

Government Overreach

The Republican Party has traditionally advocated limited government. But a wave of prohibitions involving education (books like Maus and Critical Race Theory) and aggressive anti-abortion and anti-queer legislation reveals that impulse has long since dissipated. 

Just this week we learned that Texas will not do business with financial firms that boycott fossil fuels. 

Senate Bill 13, which went into effect in September, prohibits the state from contracting with or investing in companies that divest from oil, natural gas and coal companies.

January 6, Trump, and White Supremacist Terrorism

We don't know all the things about last year's January 6 assault on the Capitol. We don't know how many of the people who stormed the Capitol arrived in Washington with plans to do just that. We know some people planned the attack--I mean, you don't "just happen" to bring gallows to a peaceful demonstration--but we don't know how many.  We know Donald Trump sat and watched things unfold, having stoked up the crowd and promised to march to the Capitol himself, we know Trump long cultivated a following among White supremacist terrorists, and we know that for hours he ignored pleas from his allies and his appointed officials to stop the violence, but we don't know whether he actually planned for the attack himself. We also don't know how many high level officials, some elected, or how many of Trump's close political advisors planned or facilitated the assault.

So there's a lot we don't know. But one thing we know absolutely and for sure: right-wing terrorists, many of them White nationalists, helped plan the attack and instigated it. As FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress last year, January 6 was a terrorist attack on the United States.

And let us not forget Donald Trump's role in convening those terrorists, working up the larger crowd, and legitimating their actions. His political allies were closely tied to extremists on and around January 6. Proud Boys provided security for Roger Stone. Pretorians guarded Michael Flynn. Nor may we forget the role of elected Republicans in trying to erase the memory of those events.

We need to better understand there right-wing movements. They are diverse. Some of them are accelerationist: they want to create escalating waves of violence that will lead to civil war. Some of them are conspiracy nuts. Many are overt White supremacists. All are authoritarians.

I'd like to share five thought pieces that provide a deeper dive into the threat, how it constantly evolves, and why we should be alarmed.

Clint Watts is a national security expert who's been testifying before Congress for quite some time. Here's his analysis of how domestic extremism has been evolving. 

Lawfare is a national security law think tank running with the Brookings Institution. Here's an account of why extremist groups are mixing and mingling even across sharp ideological differences. 

Here's a New York Times story concerning a militant group, the First Amendment Praetorians, I'd never even heard of that was also involved in January 6.

Here's a CBC (Canadian public broadcasting) podcast concerning how accelerationist groups recruit, plot, and adapt. White Hot Hate.

Sociologists Samuel Perry and Andrew Whitehead analyzing the Christian nationalist dimension of the threat.

Democracy's Enemies Still at It

Recent reporting demonstrates how determined are the opponents of democracy to continue the fight. Most of these items involve things from the past that are just now coming out into the open--but they're consistent with what's going on right now.

Making the link between past and present is Steve Bannon. On his podcast yesterday Bannon basically confirmed reporting by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa to the effect that he participated in planning the January 6 insurrection as a means of cancelling the election. The reporters' book Peril relates that prior to January 6 Bannon advised: 

People are going to go, "What the fuck is going on here?" We’re going to bury Biden on January 6th, fucking bury him. We’re going to kill it in the crib, kill the Biden presidency in the crib.

You might remember that on January 5 Bannon told his listeners that all hell would break loose the following day. Yesterday Bannon responded to the Peril reporting:

Yeah, because his legitimacy. Forty-two percent of the American people — 4-2 — think that Biden did not win the presidency legitimately. It killed itself. … Just let this go with what this illegitimate regime is doing. It killed itself. We told you from the very beginning. Just expose it. Just expose it. Never back down. Never give up. This thing will implode.

All this is consistent with Peril's reporting of a memo developed by John Eastman, "a conservative lawyer working with then-President Donald Trump's legal team." (Bannon interviewed Eastman for his podcast on January 6, right after the assault on Congress.) Eastman laid out a complicated set of steps Mike Pence could take to nullify election results in several states and hand the election to Trump. Basically, Pence would declare certain states contested, then announce Trump as the winner. Congress might object, but that would throw the election to the House of Representatives, where Trump would be elected anyway.

But they're still at it. Just yesterday the New York Times reported that Trump's campaign issued an internal memo that refuted allegations against Dominion voting that were being advanced by lawyers supporting Trump. Knowing the allegations were false, Trump refused to put a leash on his lawyers--and to this day he and his acolytes perpetuate the Big Lie that the election was stolen. 

Meanwhile, Trumpists continue to align with authoritarians around the world. Bannon and others are supporting Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro. Up for reelection but trailing badly in the polls, Bolsonaro is doing exactly what Trump did in 2016 and 2020: announcing in advance that the election is being rigged. And today, following other Trump acolytes who have made pilgrimages to Hungary, Mike Pence is speaking to a "pro-family" event, the "Fourth Budapest Domestic Summit."

And Arizona Republicans are still conducting their bogus 2020 election audit after multiple delays, even deadlines for the submission of its report. Trump keeps pounding the drum, sending another letter to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to demand that he decertify last year's election. Trump is already under criminal investigation in Georgia for leaning on this guy.

The present continues the past. Trump's first National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, was yapping yesterday about a plan to put coronavirus vaccine in salad dressing. Salad dressing! Flynn, we recall, was convicted of lying to the FBI about his financial relationship with Turkey and resigned his position after lying about his conversations with Russia's ambassador to the US. He's still around. And this week Rand Paul campaign aide Jesse Benton, who was convicted of campaign finance violations in the 2016 election, only to be pardoned by Trump (!!!), received federal charges for funneling Russian money to the Trump campaign.

It never quit being about Russia.

Fox News Will Kill You; The GOP Just Hates You

Ever since the pandemic settled in, I've wondered if the Republican Party is a death cult. I can't explain why would it lead people to deny the science, reject masks, and gather for mass rallies. 

Even today, though, Fox News is out front telling people not to trust the vaccines. Media Matters documents how their evening talk shows promote conspiracy theories and outright lies, even while they push the threat that the government is going to force people to be vaccinated. But why?

If it's all to make Joe Biden look bad, it's a horrible strategy. It works only on a few people who already hate Democrats. I just don't know.

Then there's Senator Marsh Blackburn. While we were first processing the news that a young White man had murdered 8 people, six of them Asian American women working in massage parlors, Blackburn takes advantage of the opportunity to tweet this:

Given the context, Blackburn essentially waved the, "I'm a racist" flag, indicating her disdain for Asian Americans and for all who hate racism.

Finally, Brian Taylor Cohen updates us on the House resolution to award a Congressional Gold Medal to the Capitol Police for protecting the Capitol during the January 6 insurrection. 

Remarkably, Blackburn was not among the Dirty Dozen. 

Southern Baptists Are Mean (the Denomination, That Is)

I'm sorry, but it needs to be said: meanness runs deep in the Southern Baptist Convention's DNA. I have some theories about why, but that's not super-important. What I want to say is, don't be surprised when you see otherwise inexplicable meanness from the SBC.

I met Jesus in a Southern Baptist church, where I received a great deal of love. I served a Southern Baptist church part-time in college, founded the Baptist Student Union there, served as a Southern Baptist Home Missionary, and graduated from THE Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. I was even president of the Whitsitt Society for Baptist Freedom, the student resistance movement against the inevitable fundamentalist takeover. I met countless wonderful people and received an incredible amount of love. No one in the SBC ever came after me.

When my Mom was very sick and death was inevitable, the choir from her Southern Baptist church got on a bus and came to the house to sing hymns. I sobbed and sobbed. God bless them.

But the Southern Baptist Convention is mean. Always has been. Let me explain.

As everyone knows, the denomination was founded to defend the interests of slaveholders. It took a long time for other denominations that split over slavery to reconcile, however imperfectly, but Baptists never did. Founding moments tend to imprint themselves in your DNA. The only reason the SBC exists at all is hate.

C. H. Toy, lifted from Wikipedia

Southern Baptists embroiled themselves in one controversy after another. Southern Baptists almost universally embraced segregation until well into the modern Civil Rights Movement. In a college research project I learned that the denomination's national setting and its agencies began calling for civil rights long before congregations were on board. 

Southern Baptists did not escape the fundamentalist controversies. In 1879 they fired a professor for maintaining that Isaiah did not predict Jesus. Poor slob wound up taking a job at Harvard. Southern Seminary and the SBC publishing house faced dire threats in the 1960s when a professor published a study of Genesis that did not promote creationism. The professor, Ralph Elliott, was fired--and I double-dog guarantee you that the people who fired him mostly agreed with him. But it's a mean organization.

Lots of people are familiar with the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention, which started in the 1970s and became complete in the 1990s. We'll get there, but not yet. I may offend some friends in saying this, but the fundamentalists had some legitimate grievances. Lots of Baptists resented the elitism of the SBC establishment, and it was real. Many are the times I saw SBC elites mock the people whose money fed their children for being naive, ignorant, and unsophisticated. There was indeed a spirit of hiding one's superior knowledge from the masses, lest one get fired. And there was a powerful good ole boy network that got people jobs, and better jobs, and sweet opportunities. 

I know. I was in the pipeline. Not in the middle of it, but close to people who were. I was set if I wanted to go that route. Even in my 50s, and decades removed from my SBC life, I've gotten a couple of calls.

No wonder the fundamentalists were mean. For that matter, the elites were mean in part because they were constantly under threat from the fundamentalists and had experienced hurt. But there was a meanness there too, even among some of the nicest people I've ever met.

Now, don't get me wrong. The fundamentalists, generally speaking, were assholes. That's being too nice. They were sadists. I could describe the trustee who mocked a woman professor for hyphenating her name. Or the megachurch pastor and SBC president who accused a seminary professor of heresy--but privately admitted he hadn't read the book in question. Or the trustee who expressed surprise when I told him that early Baptists had female deacons, offered me his address for me to send the evidence, and (of course) never replied when I did send a package. Or the megachurch pastor who insisted that divorced men were disqualified from pastoring... until his wife filed for divorce. He's still in the same pulpit.

We all know how mean those people are now. The two most influential figures in the takeover movement now live in shame. One has a documented track record of sexually assaulting younger men, and the other has a documented track record of sweeping sexual assault allegations under the rug and minimizing them, even advising wives to endure physical abuse if it's just occasional.

But you know how mean they were? They hired one of my friends to teach at an SBC seminary, replacing people they'd run off. I was disappointed that my friend would enable what they were doing, but I think he'd really convinced himself they were hiring him in good faith. He was "conservative enough" to work there. Within a few years, they'd fired that entire new first wave of new faculty members for not being "conservative enough." Mean.

If you're following religion on social media, it's amazing how quickly the SBC trolls come out. Some of them have figured out that the bigger an asshole you are, the faster you can gather a little following and maybe make some money. Today a colleague at an evangelical college voiced his support of LGBTQ+ students, and the backlash was immediate. Even some big names.

Two issues rival LGBTQ+ persons in their capacity to stir the trolls. So much as suggest that women might have distinctive and valuable gifts that the church should celebrate--I'm not even talking about ordination!--and men will just climb all over themselves to shout that down. And race? The Southern Baptist reaction against critical race theory has driven prominent Black churches out of the denomination--and you can absolutely tell that the condemnations of critical race theory come from people who have no idea what they're talking about. But that's another conversation. The point is, they're just mean.

So when you see Beth Moore leaving the SBC, remember: she experienced a lot of the same love I did back in the day. But she's also tolerated decades of meanness, and lately it's just crossed the line, overflowed the cup, injured the camel, you name it. Because meanness is in the SBC DNA. 

What Is This Dangerous Game?

It looks very much like Donald Trump and his allies are stoking violence as a last-ditch response to his election loss. Consider a three examples from Monday and Tuesday.

Fox News host Lou Dobbs interviewed rogue lawyer Sidney Powell. Dobbs said, "This is no longer about just voter fraud or electoral fraud. This is something much bigger." Dobbs then called Trump to take "drastic action" because of "the crimes that have been committed against him and against the American people." (As summarized by CNN's Brian Stelter.)

Lin Wood, an attorney who filed suit to block the certification of election results in Georgia along with former/present? attorney Sidney Powell, tweeted this Tuesday morning: 

Good morning.

Our country is headed to civil war. A war created by 3rd party bad actors for their benefit - not for We The People.

Communist China is leading the nefarious efforts to take away our freedom.

@realDonaldTrump

 should declare martial law.

Looks like Michael Flynn, recently pardoned by Trump, is calling for martial law as well. 

Trump election attorney Joe diGenova, also a Fox personality, had some things to say about Chris Krebs, the Trump appointee responsible for election cybersecurity. Trump fired Krebs recently after Krebs insisted upon the election's security. For his part, Krebs did a compelling 60 Minutes interview in which he accused Trump of undermining democracy. So diGenova:

Anybody who thinks the election went well, like that idiot Krebs who used to be the head of cybersecurity. That guy is a class A moron. He should be drawn and quartered. Taken out at dawn and shot.

This is a lawyer who represents the President of the United States. He can say he was using hyperbole. He can say, "Of course, I wasn't threatening anyone." 

But comments like these fit a pattern. Trump supporters have taken arms to state capitols. They have attempted to kidnap governors and stage televised executions of public officials. Trump himself has claimed he had the support of all the tough people. 

Maybe Trump is trying to stage a coup. Maybe he's building up funds to maintain his political influence and run a shadow government: he's raised $150 million for election legal fees, little of which will be spent on legal fees. Maybe he's using his supporters to stir up violence in the streets. We don't know what his game is, but it's dangerous as hell.

In a press conference Tuesday, Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling, a Trump supporter, spoke directly to Trump.

Stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone is going to get hurt, someone is going to get shot, someone is going to get killed. And it’s not right.

What We're Not Seeing

Not one of us knows whether Trump is laying the foundation for a serious coup attempt or just raising hell because he's desperate. I'm alarmed, in part because some very wise people are apparently just as alarmed.

What I can say: we're not seeing the things we need to see that would reassure us. For every Larry Hogan, Mike DeWine, or other Republican who's saying out loud that the election was fair, Trump lost, and he needs to begin the transition, there are dozens of powerful Republicans calling the election rigged and hundreds keeping mostly quiet. 

The big story Monday: Last week Oklahoma Senator James Lankford said that if Trump didn't allow Biden to receive intelligence briefings by the end of the week, Lankford would step in and make that happen. Since Lankford chairs the committee that oversees the GSA, he'd have some clout.

Apparently somebody got to Jim Lankford. The Wall Street Journal reports that he reversed his strong position over the weekend.

I'm not in a hurry, necessarily, to get Joe Biden these briefings, it's been interesting how the media, the national media, not this network, but others have twisted this term "step in." I happen to chair the committee that oversees GSA, that is the entity that has to be able to make this call.

 He lied. Last week he specifically said

If that's not occurring by Friday, I will step in as well and be able to push and say, this needs to occur.

This is not a good sign. We're not seeing enough good signs, and that should bother us. Because meanwhile Donald Trump is literally stirring up street violence.

And while all that's going on, Georgia' Republican Secretary of State tells us about the pressure he's getting from other Republicans to change the election results there. I said Republican Secretary of State. He called Georgia Rep. Doug Collins a "liar" and a "charlatan" for levying false accusations, and he insinuated that Senator Linseed Lindsey Graham literally suggested tossing all mail-in ballots from certain counties.

Graham also asked whether Raffensperger had the power to toss all mail ballots in counties found to have higher rates of nonmatching signatures, Raffensperger said.

 Surely Graham wouldn't push something illegal?

Raffensperger said he was stunned that Graham appeared to suggest that he find a way to toss legally cast ballots. 

Oh. So while we're telling ourselves it's just a matter of time before Donald Trump heads back to Mar-a-Lago and Joe Biden's dogs make their home on Pennsylvania Avenue, maybe we should pause the premature chicken counting and watch what some really powerful people are doing to our democracy. 

Some of the effects are already evident. Political scientists Vin Arceneaux and Rory Truex have been tracking the opinions of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans concerning this past election, and the results are disturbing. 

Almost half of Republicans don't accept Biden's win as legitimate.

Most Republicans literally don't believe Biden won.

Numbers like that are a five-alarm fire for democracy. Hell, they're bad for Thanksgiving--and a good reason to avoid extended family. And they explain what we're not seeing: Republicans coming out to acknowledge Biden's win.

This is why we need more words like those of National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien. But he's alone.

If there is a new administration, they deserve some time to come in and implement their policies ... if the Biden-Harris ticket is determined to be the winner -- and obviously, things look that way now -- we'll have a very professional transition from the National Security Council.

Be Vigilant: This Ain’t Over

Sure, they called Arizona for Biden last night. I know Darth Vader Karl Rove says it’s time for Republicans to acknowledge the election. And yes, the DHS called the election the “most secure ever.” We all love it when Trump legal claims get just laughed out of court. 

None of that rules out the Republicans trying (again) to steal the election. First the theory, then the evidence. The theory is that Trump is an authoritarian who will not cede power unless he’s forced to do so.  He has stirred up millions and millions of followers to believe the election was rigged. I’ve spoken to them. You have too. These are otherwise competent people who also bought into hydroxychloroquine. Notice that key Republicans, like Mike Pompeo and Kevin McCarthy keep saying they don’t expect or they don’t know that Biden will be inaugurated.

It all looks like a storm stirred up to soothe Trump’s bruised ego, maybe an attempt to negotiate some leverage for his safe exit from power. I still think it’s highly likely things won’t escalate beyond this point. 

But vigilance is called for. Two GOP strategists from Michigan are sending up the alert: there’s a GOP scheme to void the popular vote in key states, handing them over to their Republican state legislatures. It would require enormous bad faith, maybe even criminal conduct, but it’s out there. And there are GOP legislators in Pennsylvania who are up for it. 

And here’s the risk. When have these Republicans ever shown the backbone to say no to Trump and his armies of highly dedicated supporters? The longer this lasts, the deeper the division that sets in, the more likely they are to step forward and cross the line.

The GOP committed itself to ruling as a minority years ago. Don’t assume it won’t cross the ultimate line.

I hope I’m wrong.

Happy Veterans' Day

 I was raised in Alabama, surrounded by men I loved and admired (all men in my case) who served in World War 2 and in Vietnam. I stood beside my Uncle Norman, born 1909, who stood ramrod straight when the band played the national anthem for high school football games, often with a tear breaking out and running down his cheek. You don't forget a thing like that. During my lifetime my Uncle Bernie flew active missions over Vietnam. I heard lots of the stories, not all of them grand or heroic.

As liberal as I am, I am a patriot. And I am grateful for our veterans and active service members. 

So let me share two stories. Military.com is reporting that GOP lists of Nevada "criminal" voter fraud cases include hundreds of active service members and family members. One, the wife of an Air Force major, says

To see my integrity challenged, along with other members of the military to be challenged in this way, it is a shock. And to be potentially disenfranchised because of these actions, that's not OK.

Meanwhile, Bill Kristol describes the scene at the Department of Defense as top-level officials, having been fired as retaliation for who knows what, left the building.

A sign of the loyalty-oath atmosphere now at DOD: When Jim Anderson was fired yesterday as Acting Under Secretary for Policy, he was given a "clap-out" as he left the building. The WH called to request names of any political appointees who joined in so they could be fired.

Remember, what Donald Trump is doing—withholding information from the Biden transition and disrupting the Department of Defense—is wreaking the country at an already-vulnerable moment. There’s no patriotism here.

Tell me again why you think Donald Trump loves the military. And tell me why you think he's not a fascist. 

Tell me those things because right now state legislators are contemplating reversing the election results. From Vox reporter Andrew Prokop.

They Really Are a Bunch of Fascists

National Republicans have been fighting democracy for a long time. It did not begin with Trump, though he's certainly released the hounds. He's also brought almost all elected Republicans under his thumb, even the ones who might have cared about democracy at one point in the past. But remember, Citizens United, the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act, and voter ID laws go back to when Republicans realized they could not win a democratic election.

What we're seeing now is just whirlwind of all the wind sowing they've been doing. They do not want democracy. They want white power.

Here in Pennsylvania, we have Republican lawmakers trying to open an investigation in to the voting process--they want not to review the election but to meddle with it while it's happening.

In Texas the governor is restricting drop-off spots for mail-in ballots to one location per county. Think how big a Texas county is. Remember that some Texas counties have populations as high as 3 million. One location. They call it an "election security measure."

The state director of Florida Latinos for Trump turns out to be a Proud Boy. Here he is flashing the white power sign with Roger Stone.

NBC reports that Trump administration officials were ordered to "make comments sympathetic to Kyle Rittenhouse," the white Kenosha, Wisconsin shooter who killed two protestors and maimed another. How does that sound in the light of Trump telling the Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by"? For some reason White House spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany could not bring herself to directly condemn white supremacy in response to a question from a Fox reporter.

So tell me they're not all fascists?