Morning Briefing: Neo-Fascist Groups Staged Multiple Demonstrations on September 11th
Neo-Fascist White supremacist groups staged public demonstrations in Iowa, Florida, and Massachusetts, each using banners and flags to promote similar antisemitic conspiracy theories.
Morning Briefing: Neo-fascist White Supremacists groups in Iowa, Florida, and Massachusetts staged public demonstrations and spread antisemitic conspiracy theories on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
A neo-Nazi drove an U-Haul truck through Des Moines, Iowa that “that he dubbed the ‘9/11 Hate Bus’ with signage that blamed Jewish people for the terrorist attack.” In Massachusetts, “a group of masked individuals representing an emerging neo-Nazi group hung banners bearing antisemitic conspiracy theories and racist messages above roads in Saugus and Danvers.” A group of neo-Nazis in Jacksonville, Florida, gathered on an I-95 overpass near University Boulevard and “unveiled Swastika flags and antisemitic banners.”
The neo-Nazi in Iowa claimed on Telegram to be affiliated with the Northeast Iowa-based neo-Nazi group the 319 Crew, the Neo-Nazis in Massachusetts claimed on Gab to be members of the Nationalist Socialist Club, and while no group has claimed responsibility for the incident in Florida, Patriot Front has been active in the state.
The incident in Florida is among a growing number of White Supremacists antisemitic incidents in the state, according to a new report from the Anti-Defamation League. Florida reportedly “saw a 50% increase in anti-Semitic incidents in 2021 compared to the year before, and Florida had the third most anti-Semitic incidents of any state in the country.”
The U.S. Justice Department has reportedly “seized the phones of two top advisers to former President Donald J. Trump and blanketed his aides with about 40 subpoenas in a substantial escalation of the investigation into his efforts to subvert the 2020 election.”
During a speech at the Truth and Liberty Coalition conference, “U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert called for conservative churchgoers to put ‘God back at the center of our country’ and defeat ‘the enemy’ that she said is destroying it from within.”
The Internal Revenue Service will “launch a full security review of its facilities nationwide,” Commissioner Charles Rettig announced Tuesday, as congressional Republicans and far-right extremists are lashing out at the agency and the new funding it is slated to receive in a massive spending law.
The official Twitter account for U.S. Customs and Border Protection operations in the West Texas region “pushed an argument by controversial former Trump aide Stephen Miller that America no longer has constitutional government.”
The Boise Pride Festival lost three sponsors after the chair of the Idaho Republican Party Dorothy Moon “released a statement claiming the companies involved were financing the sexualization of our children.” Organizers also canceled a family-friendly children’s drag show event.
Republican members of Congress who voted against certifying 2020 presidential election results “received over $22.2 million from corporate PACs between Jan. 7, 2021 and June 30, 2022.”
Must Reads
Michelle Smith reports that during a recent event, Michael Flynn was introduced as “‘America’s General,’ but to those in the audience, Flynn is far more than that: martyr, hero, leader, patriot, warrior. The retired lieutenant general, former national security adviser, onetime anti-terrorism fighter, is now focused on his next task: building a movement centered on Christian nationalist ideas, where Christianity is at the center of American life and institutions. Flynn brought his fight — a struggle he calls both spiritual and political — last month to a church in Batavia, New York, where thousands of people paid anywhere from a few dollars to up to $500 to hear and absorb his message that the United States is facing an existential threat, and that to save the nation, his supporters must act.” [Associated Press]
Rosie Gray writes that if you “spend enough time online and you’ll stumble across the ‘Ted-pilled’ community, where ‘Uncle Ted’ is a prophet who predicted the Silicon Valley-created dystopia we live in. Kaczynski’s online popularity has coincided with a flurry of Unabomber-related content in recent years, including three separate TV or film projects: a four-part Netflix documentary, a dramatised Manhunt series on the FBI’s investigation, and Ted K, a feature-length biopic set on location near the infamous Lincoln, Montana cabin where Kaczynski built the bombs he used to kill three people and injure 23 more.” [UnHerd]
Andy Kroll writes that “A vicious conspiracy theory such as QAnon or Pizzagate, a dark and disturbing fiction about a supposed child-trafficking operation run by Democratic Party leaders out of a D.C. pizzeria, does more than advance some fantastical and wildly implausible claim about a group of people. It dehumanizes them. By accusing someone of the most evil acts imaginable, you rob him or her of humanity and dignity. In the simplest yet most warlike terms imaginable, you cast them as the enemy, as someone to be defeated — if not with real weapons, then with cruel tweets and deceptive videos. And of course, there’s no shortage of evidence that digital soldiering can lead to actual violence.” [Tom Dispatch]
What to expect from Radical Reports: Morning Briefing provides a daily round-up of reporting on the Radical Right; Extremist Links offers a weekly round-up of extremists activities including the white supremacist and militia movements; Research Desk provides monthly highlights research and analysis from academia on the Radical Right; Field Notes delivers research on key organizations and analysis of the strategies and tactics of the Radical Right.