Bob Carr — If you think Donald is bad, imagine Donald Trump 2.0

Sen. Tom Cotton waiting in the wings.

The Sydney Morning Herald
If you think Donald is bad, imagine Donald Trump 2.0

Bob Carr, former foreign affairs minister and former NSW premier

ht The Automatic Earth

Amran Feroz — Munich Shooter Considered Himself Aryan, Admired Hitler and Breivik: No Wonder the Media Has Moved On

Sonboly considered himself as an “Aryan” and was proud of his supposed heritage, especially because of his Iranian and German background. The narrative of Aryans being a “master race” (“Herrenrasse”) is not just widespread in Europe or the United States, but also in parts of Central Asian countries. When Persia changed its name to Iran (“Land of the Aryans”) in 1935, Afghanistan and Tajikistan protested against it. Like Iran, both countries still consider themselves the cradle of the Aryan people. From a scientific perspective, while the historical Aryans lived 3000-4000 year ago in several parts of Asia, they had little connection to those who popularized the racist Aryanist ideology in the 20th century.…

The date of the shooting, July 22, appeared to have been deliberately chosen. Exactly five years to this date, in 2011, the right-wing extremist and self-styled “counter-jihadist” Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people at a youth camp in Norway. Sonboly selected the date to honor Breivik, his personal hero. According to the Bavarian investigators, Sonboly was gripped with an obsessive hatred of Turks and Arabs. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, one of Germany's leading dailies, reported that Sonboly also admired Adolf Hitler and considered it an “honor" to share a birthday with the Führer.

Turns out he wan't shouting "Allah Hu Akbar" as initially reported.

AlterNet
Munich Shooter Considered Himself Aryan, Admired Hitler and Breivik: No Wonder the Media Has Moved On
Emran Feroz

Mike Lux — The 47% On Steroids, With A Hit Of Koch

The hits just kept coming, so it is well worth checking out these transcripts yourself. They will blow your mind with how far to the right these billionaires and their friends go.

Crooks & Liars
The 47% On Steroids, With A Hit Of Koch
Mike Lux

Travis Gettys — Heavily armed sovereign citizen wounds deputy in doomed GA courthouse takeover plot (via Raw Story )

Heavily armed sovereign citizen wounds deputy in doomed GA courthouse takeover plot (via Raw Story )

Authorities shot and killed a sovereign citizen Friday morning outside a Georgia courthouse after he brought weapons and explosives in an attempt to take over the building. Investigators said Dennis Marx arrived at the Forsyth County Administration…

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David Ferguson — Texas GOP convention’s ‘Davy Crockett’ calls for war against ‘dictator’ Obama (via Raw Story )

Texas GOP convention’s ‘Davy Crockett’ calls for war against ‘dictator’ Obama (via Raw Story )

The 2014 Texas Republican Convention takes place this weekend and things were off to an interesting start with this speaker, a Davy Crockett impersonator who called for the violent overthrow of President Barack Obama and his administration. Dressed…

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Arturo Garcia — Nevada lawmaker: Cliven Bundy supporters are settting up ‘checkpoints’ against residents (via Raw Story )

Nevada lawmaker: Cliven Bundy supporters are settting up ‘checkpoints’ against residents (via Raw Story )

A Nevada congressman contacted law enforcement saying supporters of rancher Cliven Bundy have set up checkpoints for drivers’ “residency” before letting them pass, KVVU-TV reported on Monday. Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV) expressed his concerns…

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Scott Kaufman — Florida Ku Klux Klan leader boasts of ‘invisible empire’ of sympathetic public officials (via Raw Story )

Florida Ku Klux Klan leader boasts of ‘invisible empire’ of sympathetic public officials (via Raw Story )

Residents in central Florida have become increasingly aware that the Ku Klux Klan is in their midst. WFTV 9 reports that recruitment flyers for the Florida chapter of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) have appeared in neighborhoods throughout…

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Igor Volsky — The Complete Guide To The Rise Of The Debt Ceiling Truthers

Timeline from 2010. The GOP leadership is being lead.

ThinkProgress
The Complete Guide To The Rise Of The Debt Ceiling Truthers
Igor Volsky

Peter Radford — The End [of Reaganism] Is Nigh!

The end, that is, of Reaganism.

The Republicans have shut down government because no one is taking their demand that health care reform is abandoned seriously.

In a nutshell the fight is over the part of reform that increases taxes on the top 1% of income earners, reduces subsidies to insurers within the Medicare system, and thus can afford to provide health care to tens of millions of previously uninsured people. That’s it. The Republicans failed to defeat these things during the law’s passage; the law stood up to challenge in the Supreme Court; and subsequently a presidential election was fought, with the winner being the advocate of the law. That’s pretty conclusive. The reform has been constitutionally and electorally approved.

But the extremists now running the Republican party think they can ignore all that. They abhor reform and so have taken to insurgency. Their defense of the wealthy to the detriment of the poor and the sick is open class warfare. It can be construed in no other way. Unless the extremists go through some radical change, their intransigence and defense of the privileged will lap over into a fight over the debt ceiling.

Which is odd, isn’t it? Because the privileged stand to lose the most when our credit worthiness is undermined. They are, after all, the holders of most of our collective wealth.

Only odd in that the elite would rather have more of smaller pie than a larger slice of a bigger pie.

I see this in historical terms.

Our current plight is the natural, if chaotic, end point of the Reagan counter-revolution.

Excellent analysis follows.

So Reaganism is solving the wrong problems. It is preventing an orderly change in society as diversity entrenches ever deeper into our way of life. It is protecting a smaller and more privileged group than the revolutionaries who launched it upon us envisaged. Their revolution, like all revolutions, was co-opted and subverted along the way. Whether it was ever going to deliver the misty eyed visions of Reagan is questionable. That it has delivered in spades for the wealthy is not. Nor is the opposite effect: the vast majority of Americans have suffered under the grip of the revolution. Inequality is unprecedented. Profits have boomed. We have lived through three asset bubbles. The economy is less stable and more risky. And all that extra risk has fallen on the less privileged. Wages have stagnated. Employment is less certain. Retirement more fragile. And our health care system fallen way behind those abroad.

The irony is that, by undermining the safety of the economy, the Reagan counter-revolution has put in place the foundation for the next wave of progressive politics....

But, I doubt, by any of our current leaders, none of whom seems to have the desire or the vision to begin the rebalancing. I suspect that it will not be before 2020 that we will, retrospectively, realize that the debt and budget crises forced on us by the extremists this year were the moment that the pendulum began its long and slow swing to the left. 

Real-World Economics Review Blog
The End Is Nigh!
Peter Radford

What Radford doesn't mention is that the pendulum may not swing naturally but be catalyzed by a depression or war. Moreover, by 2020 the world will be in the grip of the climate change that is likely going to be the background theme of the 21st century, resulting in profound social, political and economic change.

Digby — Williamsburg Accord: The GOP Pledge to Generate Crises to Get Their Way

Do you know what the Williamsburg Accord is? It's the GOP agenda for obstructing government in order to thwart the Democratic agenda and roll back legislation by defunding it. It's another agreement like the Norquist anti-tax pledge. The result is the factionalism that George Washington cautioned against instead of democratic government.

How about the Madison Project? Know what that is?

AlterNet
Williamsburg Accord: The GOP Pledge to Generate Crises to Get Their Way
Digby | Hullaballoo

Janet Allon — From the Mean-Spirited to the Asinine: 7 Prime Examples of Right-Wing Lunacy This Week

1. Ken Blackwell: Cutting Food Stamps, Oh So Christian

2. Bill O’Reilly: Jesus Died For Our Taxes

3. AIG CEO: My Plight Is Similar to Lynch Mob Victims

4. Gohmert’s Pile (of Crap) – Obamacare and Immigration Are Plots to Deprive Real Americans of Full-time Jobs

5. NRA Lobbyist: Opposing Elephant Slaughter Is Hitlerian Animal Racism

6. Bryan Fischer Gets in on the Teenaged Bullying Action

7. Kansas Christian Group: Stop Oppressing Our Kids By Teaching Them Science

AlterNet
From the Mean-Spirited to the Asinine: 7 Prime Examples of Right-Wing Lunacy This Week
Janet Allon

The only thing that I could find on the left was, "The government is running out of money," but in the current context that's only because the House is holding the country hostage.

Hunter — Crackpot Pennsylvania police chief makes good case for town quarantine

It gets worse, or funnier, depending on how you look at it. 

This is rural Pennsylvania, after all. Your remember the Whiskey Rebellion that George Washington himself put down at Alexander Hamilton's urging in order to enforce the federal whiskey tax? (Got that? "Enforce the tax law.") 

I guess rural Pennsylvanians have either forgotten about it or are game for a re-match in the hope of winning this time. Maybe they think Barack Obama is no George Washington.

Daily Kos
Crackpot Pennsylvania police chief makes good case for town quarantine
Hunter

Eric Dolan — Pennsylvania police chief: F*ck all you libtards out there, you take it in the a**

Pennsylvania police chief: F*ck all you libtards out there, you take it in the a** (via Raw Story )

The mayor of Gilberton, Pennsylvania is standing by her city’s police chief despite a series of profanity-laced and threatening videos. In a video that has received wide attention, police chief Mark Kessler repeatedly tells those upset by his use…

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Arie Perliger — Challengers from the Sidelines: Understanding America’s Violent Far-Right

Introduction

In the last few years, and especially since 2007, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of attacks and violent plots originating from individuals and groups who selfidentify with the far-right of American politics. These incidents cause many to wonder whether these are isolated attacks, an increasing trend, part of increasing societal violence, or attributable to some other condition. To date, however, there has been limited systematic documentation and analysis of incidents of American domestic violence.

This study provides a conceptual foundation for understanding different far-right groups and then presents the empirical analysis of violent incidents to identify those perpetrating attacks and their associated trends. Through a comprehensive look at the data, this study addresses three core questions:

(1) What are the main current characteristics of the violence produced by the far right?

(2) What type of far-right groups are more prone than others to engage in violence? How are characteristics of particular far-right groups correlated with their tendency to engage in violence?

(3) What are the social and political factors associated with the level of far-right violence? Are there political or social conditions that foster or discourage violence?

It is important to note that this study concentrates on those individuals and groups who have actually perpetuated violence and is not a comprehensive analysis of the political causes with which some far-right extremists identify. While the ability to hold and appropriately articulate diverse political views is an American strength, extremists committing acts of violence in the name of those causes undermine the freedoms that they purport to espouse.

Combatting Terrorism Center at West Point
Challengers from the Sidelines: Understanding America’s Violent Far-Right
Arie Perliger | Director of Terrorism Studies at the Combating Terrorism Center and Assistant Professor at the Department of Social Sciences, US Military Academy at West Point

The views expressed in this report are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of the Combating Terrorism Center, U.S. Military Academy, Department of Defense or U.S. government.

See also the 2009 DHS study — Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment