Is Donald Trump the Charismatic Leader the KKK & Neo-Nazis Have Been Waiting For?

http://democracynow.org - After initially refusing to condemn an endorsement from former KKK leader David Duke, Donald Trump has faced a series of questions about why his campaign has been so embraced by Neo-Nazis and Klansmen. We speak to Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University in San Bernardino. Levin talks about encountering Trump supporters at a recent rally held by a chapter of the Klan in Anaheim known as the Loyal White Knights, or LWK.
Interview:
https://youtu.be/iRsGiFKcpuk

Winning His Race: Is Trump the Poster Child for the Rise of U.S. Hate Groups?

Donald Trump is the front-runner as he enters the final Republican presidential debate ahead of next week’s Super Tuesday primary. He is also featured on the cover of a new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center, "The Year in Hate and Extremism." We speak with SPLC President Richard Cohen, who notes that "[o]ver 60 percent of the people who support Trump believe that President Obama is a secret Muslim and wasn’t born in this country." The report points to the presidential election cycle as one of the primary reasons for the rising number of hate groups across the U.S., saying last year was marked by a level of hate speech in mainstream politics not seen in decades. The Investigation Discovery network will premiere a series titled "Hate in America," based on the work of the Southern Poverty Law Center, this Monday, February 29, at 8 p.m. Eastern.
Interview:
https://youtu.be/UzDeg9EdyX8

The Koch Brothers Are Now Funding The Bundy Land Seizure Agenda | ThinkProgress

The political network of the conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch signaled last week that it is expanding its financial and organizational support for a coalition of anti-government activists and militants who are working to seize and sell America’s national forests, monuments, and other public lands...
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/02/11/3748602/koch-brothers-funding-bundy-agenda/

David Niose: Fighting Back the Right (AHA Conference 2015)

For decades American politics and public policy have been sliding in the direction of unreason. Thanks in large part to the growth of the religious right, the political realm has become increasingly divisive and anti-intellectual, with little rational discourse and much pandering. How can humanists and others seeking rational public policy reverse this course? David Niose, former AHA president and current legal director, addresses this question in his new book, "Fighting Back the Right: Reclaiming America from the Attack on Reason." He shows how so much of the right-wing agenda—and not just the religious right, but the corporate interests that control the system as well—relies on the suppression of reason in American society. Thus, to fight back, those seeking rational, human-centered public policy must recognize what David calls the “reason deficit” and confront it head-on.

David Niose has been serving as director of the AHA’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center since January 2014, overseeing all of the AHA’s litigation and other legal activities. He has practiced law since 1990, most of that time running his own civil litigation practice in Massachusetts. David served two terms as AHA president and served on the board of directors from 2005 to 2013. He is author of "Fighting Back the Right: Reclaiming America from the Attack on Reason" and "Nonbeliever Nation: The Rise of Secular Americans."
Interview:
https://youtu.be/1weZfxY6rRI

Ted Cruz embraces apocalyptic preachers and anti-gay militants

One prominent end times-believing preacher who is active in the Cruz campaign is Rafael Bienvenido Cruz, who just happens to be the candidate’s father. The Rev. Cruz subscribes to Dominionist theology, a school of thought that says Genesis gives true men of faith the right to seize control of government and run the country by biblical mandates.

Is that vision shared by the younger Cruz?...
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-cruz-embraces-apocalyptic-preachers-20160205-story.html

Christian Singer Willing to Die for LaVoy Finicum's Beliefs

Victoria Sharp, an 18-year-old Christian singer, claims that Oregon militiaman LaVoy Finicum was murdered and that she is willing to die for his beliefs.
https://youtu.be/E6ryqbzNFWo

Planned Parenthood Indictments: A Closer Look - Late Night with Seth Meyers

Seth takes a closer look at the recent indictments of anti-abortion activists investigating Planned Parenthood.
https://youtu.be/yHBdLC4AD04

Bundy Militia Post Video Of Messing With Native American Artifacts

“We want to make sure these things are returned to their rightful owners and that they’re taken care of,” he says, noting rat droppings in some of the boxes. “This is how Native Americans’ heritage is being treated. To me, I don’t think it’s acceptable,” Finicum concludes...
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/01/21/3741450/native-american-artifacts-oregon-standoff/

Novelist Obliterates The Bundy Militia -- And Oregon’s Largest Newspaper -- In 194 Words | ThinkProgress

The Oregonian’s A1 headline on Sunday, Jan. 17, “Effort to free federal lands,” is inaccurate and irresponsible. The article that follows it is a mere mouthpiece for the scofflaws illegally occupying public buildings and land, repeating their lies and distortions of history and law. 

Ammon Bundy and his bullyboys aren’t trying to free federal lands, but to hold them hostage. I can’t go to the Malheur refuge now, though as a citizen of the United States, I own it and have the freedom of it. That’s what public land is: land that belongs to the public — me, you, every law-abiding American. The people it doesn’t belong to and who don’t belong there are those who grabbed it by force of arms, flaunting their contempt for the local citizens. 

Those citizens of Harney County have carefully hammered out agreements to manage the refuge in the best interest of landowners, scientists, visitors, tourists, livestock and wildlife. They’re suffering more every day, economically and otherwise, from this invasion by outsiders. 

Instead of parroting the meaningless rants of a flock of Right-Winged Loonybirds infesting the refuge, why doesn’t The Oregonian talk to the people who live there? 

Ursula K. Le Guin
Northwest Portland

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/01/19/3740829/ursula-k-le-guin-oregon-lte/

Brian McFadden on The Social Justice Militia

Please don't tread on the marginalized.
http://www.alternet.org/comics/alternet-comics-brian-mcfadden-social-justice-militia

Poll: Most Westerners Don't Want Federal Lands Turned Over To States

Furthermore, the poll found 60 percent of those surveyed opposed selling federal land holdings to reduce budget deficits...
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/conservation-poll-westerners-favor-federal-lands

The Crackpot Alternative Legal System That Threatens To Escalate The Oregon Standoff | ThinkProgress

Here’s what you need to know about the “common law” practices being deployed by the Bundy bunch, and how these developments could put the complex situation in southeastern Oregon on a still-stranger path than it’s followed so far...
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/01/15/3739909/oregon-standoff-malheur-grand-jury-explainer/

Bundy & Co. ‘Didn’t Have My Permission’ To Destroy Fence

Tim Puckett, a rancher whose land runs adjacent to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, told The Oregonian Wednesday he’s never spoken to Bundy, and his ranch hands have already fixed the fence...
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/tim-puckett-bundy-militia-oregon

Tim DeChristopher on Bundy Takeover: Gov't is More Afraid of Civil Disobedience Than Armed Militias

The armed occupation of a federally owned wildlife outpost in remote Oregon has entered its second week. A self-styled right-wing antigovernment militia calling itself the Citizens for Constitutional Freedom took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in support of two ranchers sentenced to prison for setting fires that burned federal land. Leaders of the occupation include Ammon and Ryan Bundy, the sons of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who refused to pay decades’ worth of cattle grazing fees, prompting a standoff with federal rangers in 2014 in Nevada, during which an armed militia rallied to his support. A recent piece by the website Waging Nonviolence compares the federal government’s handling of the Bundy case and that of Tim DeChristopher, a climate activist who spent 21 months in federal custody for posing as a bidder in 2008 to prevent oil and gas drilling on thousands of acres of land controlled by the Bureau of Land Management in his home state of Utah. DeChristopher joins us to discuss.
Interview:
https://youtu.be/kO2SN5WddYk

How The Bundy Standoff Endangers Local Ranchers’ Interests

But the dramatic move, which claims to protect ranchers’ livelihoods, actually threatens the fragile ecosystem of a community that has been working to carefully balance the competing interests in the land. And the people of Harney County have grown weary of the fighting...
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/01/11/3737719/rancher-history-oregon/

SCOTUS Has Ruled (Twice!) That Malheur Refuge Belongs To the Feds

The Supreme Court ruled on the case both in 1902 and again in 1935, proof that locals have long challenged the federal government's presumption of ownership. But in both cases, the federal government was found to be in possession of the land...
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/masher-wildlife-refuge

Town Cheers Sheriff For Telling Militia Men To 'Go Home'

"The protesters have no right to this land. It belongs to the native people who live here," Burns Paiute Tribal leader Charlotte Rodrique said...
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/david-ward-burns-oregon-go-home

Oregon Tribe To Militants: 'Get The Hell Out Of Here'

"They just need to get the hell out of here," Jarvis Kennedy, a member of the tribe's council, said according to a report from the Oregonian. "They didn't ask anybody, we don't want them here...our little kids are sitting at home when they should be in school."
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/oregon-tribe-wants-milita-to-leave

Why You Can't Buy A Smart Gun | ThinkProgress

But despite smart gun prototypes being prime for production since 2005, they still aren’t available to buy for law enforcement or civilian gun owners. The answer: politics...
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/01/08/3736523/smart-gun-obstacles/

Sounds Like A Great Guy

Why Did The Bundy Brigade Take Over This Particular Oregon Wildlife Refuge?
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/why-malheur-wildlife-preserve-is-relevant-in-the-militia-fight