Morning Briefing: Vance Boelter Makes First Appearance in State Court After Federal Sentencing
Vance Boelter, who pleaded guilty to assassinating a Democratic lawmaker in Minnesota and was 'sentenced to two life terms,' made initial appearance in 'state court where he faces similar charges.'
Morning Briefing: This week, Vance Boelter, who pleaded guilty to assassinating a Democratic lawmaker in Minnesota and was “sentenced to two life terms plus 40 years in prison,” made his initial appearance in “state court where he faces similar charges. During the hearing, Boelter reportedly claimed that “his rights had been violated during the 14 months he has been in federal custody,” and “made the bizarre request that Sen. Amy Klobuchar be compelled to testify in his case.”
In Chattanooga, Tennessee, four local Republican candidates took part in a church’s worship service in order to “campaign for the worshippers’ votes in the upcoming election,” which raises questions about church’s tax-exempt status. Before the candidates spoke to the congregation, a church leader reportedly said that he does not “think, as a Christian, as a church, you can really vote Democrat anymore. But if you just pay attention, it’s really hard to go into the voting booth and circle D.”
A federal judge on “agreed to dismiss the seditious-conspiracy case against the leader of the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes, and seven other members” of the far right extremist group who planned and organized the coordinated attack on the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021.
Must Reads
Adam Serwer writes that “any man who goes online today is apt to come across content telling him that he will never find a partner who will earn him the respect of other men if he lacks money and connections, if he is not bodybuilder-fit with a full head of hair, if he is not more than six feet tall. Online influencers who push this narrative have products to sell. They want you to buy their workout apps, their advice sessions, their investment plans. That’s just how a lot of advertising works: It makes you insecure so you’ll pay for a product in hopes of temporarily silencing your gnawing sense of inadequacy… Just as the manosphere and its galaxy of hucksters want you to fork over your cash so you can feel better about yourself as a man, Republicans want to make you feel insecure about your masculinity so that you vote Republican. Masculinity, in this sense, is a lifestyle product: one that comes with a set of political beliefs predicated on the subjugation of women, minority groups, and anyone else who men are told are their inferiors.” [The Atlantic]
Melissa Gira Grant writes that “whatever political and propaganda value there was in ICE storming into communities has perhaps been drained. It is as if someone advised the mass deportation crowd that if that’s what they really want, it’s better achieved without witnesses. Or, worse: It’s as if those elected Democrats who don’t oppose ICE per se but merely want it to produce better optics, got their wish—see the calls to have ICE unmask and identify themselves, without fundamentally questioning the agency’s mission. This is what is meant by ‘Abolish Trump’s IC’ —not \’Abolish ICE’—as some Democratic candidates have campaigned. It is too soon to know just what, if anything, has changed at the top of ICE, other than that Noem’s replacement at the Department of Homeland Security hopes the press will look away. But we must not confuse what we aren’t seeing day in and day out with an institutional turn away from Trump’s signature promise: to ethnically cleanse the United States, using federal law enforcement. We must not ignore how the police around us day in and day out are marshaled in service of that campaign.” [The New Republic]
David Gilbert writes that much of President Donald Trump’s base “thinks that deportations are actually not happening fast enough. ICE is on track to deport 458,000 individuals this year according to its own data, a colossal figure that still falls well short of the 1 million deportations Trump promised shortly after his inauguration… What these polls show is that while America as a whole is rejecting Trump’s immigration policies, his base is almost completely supportive. And rather than distancing themselves from ICE’s actions, Republicans seem to be leaning in again, even spending more money and running more ads about immigration than Democrats. With just months left before the midterms offer voters a chance to have their say on these policies, Republicans are gambling that their base doesn’t actually want ICE going anywhere. In November, the country will see if they’re right.” [Wired]
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.
