Extremists

CBS News reports: The serenity of downtown Portland will be tested yet again on Saturday afternoon. Stores began closing Friday night ahead of dueling protests between groups of right-wing extremists and anti-fascist demonstrators. Several extremist groups are expected to show up, but no one has applied for any type of permit. Police learned about the protest from monitoring social media, …

The Daily Beast reports: The NRA spent tens of thousands of dollars bringing hair and makeup artists around the country for the wife of its CEO, two sources told The Daily Beast. The expenses – which included plane flights and luxury hotel stays for the stylists – are bound to fuel an already-raging debate over what some see as a …

The Anti-Defamation League reports: An analysis by ADL’s Center on Extremism found that a significant number of channels on YouTube’s platform continue to disseminate anti-Semitic and white supremacist content despite the company’s June 2019 crackdown on hate speech. For years, YouTube has officially prohibited content which promoted or condoned violence or incited hatred against individuals or groups based on core …

Axios reports: The House Homeland Security Committee issued a subpoena on Wednesday to Jim Watkins, the owner of 8chan, to discuss extremist rhetoric on social media. Bipartisan Committee leaders sent Watkins a letter Tuesday asking for him to testify on his efforts to “investigate and mitigate the proliferation of extremist content” on 8chan. The anonymous forum has been linked to …

“There’s nothing about an insane criminal committing a horrible act that should lead to the government taking guns away from law-abiding citizens. That will only make us less safe. Yet that’s exactly what we’re seeing right now: a highly orchestrated effort to disarm American citizens. “It’s an effort to destroy the NRA, to defame our millions of members. Let’s fight …

The City reports: The NYPD unit that collects intelligence on terroristic threats has discovered a growing trend of racist online rhetoric circulated by white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups — and directed at New York, said John Miller, the Police Department’s deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism “What we’re seeing is an increase in the level of chatter, the number of …

Will Sommer reports at The Daily Beast: A perennial House candidate’s alleged harassment of his ex-girlfriend has gone so far that he apparently hired notorious conservative operative Jacob Wohl to pressure her and a former campaign worker, according to text messages and a recording reviewed by The Daily Beast. Wohl is best known for his blundering, often comical attempts at …

ABC News reports: A Florida white supremacist has been arrested for threatening a shooting at a Walmart just days after 22 people were killed at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, in one of the worst mass shootings in the country’s modern history. Richard Clayton, 26, was arrested by Florida Department of Law Enforcement authorities on Friday in Winter Park …

The Independent reports: The alleged gunman who launched a suspected terror attack on a mosque in Norway was inspired by the Christchurch, Poway and El Paso shooters, online records suggest. The suspect has not been officially identified by police but was named in reports as Philip Manshaus, a 21-year-old local man. Hours before the attack at the at the al-Noor …

From the National Catholic Reporter: Pope Francis called for a united Europe in an interview published by Italian daily La Stampa, saying recent political rhetoric has echoed that of Nazi Germany. “I am concerned because we hear speeches that resemble those of Hitler in 1934,” he said. ” ‘Us first. We . . . We. . . . ‘ These …

NBC News reports: A 23-year-old Las Vegas man who allegedly wanted to attack Jews and patrons of an LGBTQ bar was arrested on suspicion of possessing parts to make a bomb, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nevada said Friday. Conor Climo, who was arrested Thursday, was connected to white supremacists though encrypted online conversations, federal prosecutors said. …

CNN reports: Dmitriy Andreychenko walked into a Walmart in Missouri equipped with body armor, a handgun and a rifle less than a week after a gunman killed 22 people in a Walmart in Texas. He says it was a “social experiment” — and not intended to cause panic. “I wanted to know if that Walmart honored the 2nd amendment,” he …

The New York Times reports: The suspect in the El Paso shooting stepped out of a vehicle with his hands up and declared “I’m the shooter” when he was arrested minutes after the massacre at a Walmart store that killed 22 people, the police said in an affidavit filed Friday. The suspect, Patrick W. Crusius, 21, also divulged to the …

Politico reports: The State Department has put on leave an employee of its energy bureau after reports that he has been an active member of a white supremacist group for more than five years, two sources familiar with the situation said on Thursday. Matthew Gebert, a foreign affairs officer for the department’s Bureau of Energy Resources, was linked to the …

Haaretz reports: Advertising companies have to run the anti-gay campaign ads created by the ultra-Orthodox-Zionist Noam party, the acting chairman of the Central Elections Committee Neal Hendel [photo] ruled Tuesday. Hendel determined that in their decision not to run Noam ads, some billboard companies had derogated from equality and freedom of expression, and caused “effective harm to [Noam’s] ability to …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump has repeatedly told lawmakers and aides in private conversations that he is open to endorsing extensive background checks in the wake of two mass shootings, prompting a warning from the National Rifle Association and concerns among White House aides, according to lawmakers and administration officials. Trump, speaking to reporters Wednesday before visiting Dayton, Ohio, …

Just in from the Southern Poverty Law Center: A U.S. State Department official oversaw the Washington, D.C.-area chapter of a white nationalist organization, hosted white nationalists at his home and published white nationalist propaganda online, Hatewatch has determined. The official, Matthew Q. Gebert, works as a foreign affairs officer assigned to the Bureau of Energy Resources, a State Department spokesperson …

Ars Technica reports: 8chan was able to get back online today despite Cloudflare cutting it off, as operators of the controversial website quickly found a new provider of CDN and DDoS protection services. But as of this writing 8chan is offline again, apparently as a result of a cloud provider cutting off 8chan’s new vendor. 8chan quickly switched its website …

Posted last night to the NRA’s website: Our deepest sympathies are with the families and victims of these tragedies, as well as the entire communities of El Paso and Dayton. On behalf of our millions of members, we salute the courage of the first responders and others offering their services during this time. The NRA is committed to the safe …

CNN reports: Controversial internet message board 8chan went offline Monday after internet infrastructure company Cloudflare stopped providing support for the website used by the suspected gunman in El Paso to post a hate-filled screed. “We just sent notice that we are terminating 8chan as a customer effective at midnight tonight Pacific Time. The rationale is simple: they have proven themselves …