Morning Briefing: Pennsylvania House Passes Bill Prohibiting White Nationalists Housing Communities
The Pennsylvania House narrowly passed a “bill to prevent white nationalist groups from creating their own housing communities,” as White Nationalist such as Return to the Land seek to expand.
Morning Briefing: The Pennsylvania House of Representatives narrowly passed a “bill to prevent white nationalist groups from creating their own housing communities,” as White Nationalist groups such as Return to the Land seek to expand their reach and influence.
A single Democrat joined the Republican caucus to vote against the bill, as Republicans claim the bill would “allow transgender women to access women’s bathrooms and locker rooms.”
Life in the City Church in Austin, Texas was reportedly vandalized for the “second time in nine months,” and the Church leaders reported that a Pride mural had been defaced with “hateful rhetoric targeting the LGBTQIA+ community.”
In San Antonio, Texas, white supremacist propaganda was reportedly “distributed in a Northwest Side neighborhood near Jefferson High School,” and the flyers were apparently created by the Aryan Freedom Network, a Texas-based white supremacist group.
Quakertown is the latest borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania to reportedly be targeted with recruitment flyers from Patriot Front, the neo-fascist White Nationalist group, which is “drawing concern from residents and local advocates.”
The U.S. Justice Department reportedly rushed through the “indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center despite concerns about the strength of the case,” as Congressional Democrats on the U.S. House Judiciary Committee cited whistleblower disclosures in a letter to Associate Deputy Attorney General Aakash Singh.
Must Reads
David Gilbert writes that in the aftermath of the attack on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner “influencers, pundits, and random posters lit up social media platforms like X, Bluesky, and Instagram with conspiracy theories about the attack and the alleged shooter. Both left- and right-wing accounts claimed, without evidence, that the attack was staged… These conspiracy theories have continued to spread without evidence. Nothing new has been uncovered about the alleged shooter’s motivation, and conspiracy theories around incidents tend to evolve rapidly in the days and weeks following the event. Opinions are still being formed: Far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, for example, went from questioning whether Saturday night’s incident was staged to saying it wasn’t in the space of a couple of hours.” [Wired]
Will Sommer writes that “Donald Trump’s critics on the left have taken a lot of heat for suspecting that the assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner two weeks ago was a false flag attack—perhaps intended to give Trump a boost in the polls or provide an excuse to build his new ballroom. But it turns out that Trump supporters, already swimming in a sea of other conspiracy theories, don’t necessarily trust the WHCD shooting story presented by the feds, either. That’s one of the big findings of a recent focus group conducted by Bulwark publisher Sarah Longwell’s Longwell Partners of nine people who voted for Trump at least twice (in 2020 and 2024). Those nine people were picked for the focus group because they all now say they disapprove of his presidency. As for the WHCD attack, six participants said they believed the assassination attempt attributed to California teacher Cole Tomas Allen was ‘a psyop.’” [The Bulwark]
Jeff Sharlet writes that “Cole Allen was dangerous. ‘Cole Allen,’ the political narrative, is dangerous, a tool with which MAGA polices its internal dissenters—’I bet Tucker would have cried’—and reinforces the implicit divinity of its primary ego. But not for long! Both will likely be mostly forgotten in days. Tomorrow, King Charles is coming to America! Maybe Tuesday we’ll take Cuba. The Straits will be closed this Wednesday, but victory will be restored by Thursday evening. There’ll be more Epstein disclosures, or another kerfuffle with the pope, or just a new poll, and we’ll know finally and at last that Trump is ‘DONE.’ We may not notice, as we post the ‘BREAKING’ news, how all-caps have crept into our language. We won’t have time. We’ll have moved onto a new outrage, a new ‘embarrassment,’ a new picture of a bruised hand or a clip of ‘I-can’t-believe-he-said-THAT.” Or we will have tuned out.” [Religion Dispatches]
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; Narratives of the Right delivers weekly analysis of the current narratives in far right online spaces and promoted by right-wing media; and Research Desk provides monthly highlights research and analysis from academia on the Radical Right.
