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A Texas teen who was arrested in connection with one incident among a string of antisemitic attacks faces federal charges, according to a new criminal complaint affidavit. The 18-year-old Texas State Guard member was arrested for suspicion of arson on Nov. 10 after allegedly burning down the exterior of the Congregation Beth Israel on Halloween.

The teen, identified as Franklin Barrett Sechriest, was seen on security camera footage, enabling investigators to identify him. While the damage was contained to the exterior of the building and the fire was quickly extinguished, damages totaled around $25,000. Luckily, no one was in the building at the time or was harmed, The New York Times reported.

Sechriest’s new federal charges follow a state charge of arson in state district court in Travis County. According to the Austin American-Statesman, he was transferred to federal custody from the Travis County jail Monday after being held on $100,000 bail on local arson charges. A motion for detention has also been filed for Sechriest to be held without bond, given the federal charges.

According to the new affidavit, officials “determined that the fire was intentionally set and thus an act of arson.” When approaching the building prior to the fire, Sechriest was recorded carrying a container similar to a fuel jug alongside a roll of toilet paper.

Moments after a fire is visible on the video, he is seen jogging back into his vehicle. After FBI officials executed a search warrant and found clothes similar to what the person in the video was wearing, Sechriest was arrested, NBC News reported.

The Texas Military Department and Texas State University denounced Sechriest’s alleged actions in statements released this week. 

“Our university decries this hateful act of bigotry and violence and all the antisemitic events perpetrated recently in Austin, San Antonio, and San Marcos,” the university said. “The Texas State University community stands in solidarity with our Jewish students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members who have been impacted.”

During their search, agents also found credit card statements that indicated he purchased a 5-gallon VP Racing Fuel utility jug on Sept. 6, according to the affidavit. Additional investigations of his car also found supplies to start a fire.

While the crime has not yet been declared a hate crime, investigators found hateful rhetoric in Sechriest’s car. “They hate your ancestors, they hate your culture, they hate your nation, they hate your religion … it’s okay to hate them back,” a sticker in his car read, according to authorities. Another sticker displayed swastikas with the slogan: “Would you kill them all to see your rights? The price of freedom is paid in blood.”

But that’s not all. Investigators also found a journal that belonged to the teen in which he wrote “scout a target” on Oct. 28, three days before the fire. The day of the fire he admitted his crime in a journal entry that said: “I set a synagogue on fire,” according to the affidavit.

If convicted, Sechriest faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. “Arson at a sacred place of worship shakes the very foundations of our society,” U.S. Attorney Ashley C. Hoff of the Western District of Texas said in a press release. “This Office strongly condemns the intentional act of violence alleged in the complaint and will vigorously prosecute this type of conduct to the fullest extent possible.” 

Rabbi Steven Folberg, senior rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel, told KEYE that Sechriest’s arrest was reassuring.

“There’s a certain amount of relief for people in the Jewish community that someone who is accused of perpetrating such a violent and bigoted act is in custody,” he said. “I think that a lot of people imagine that someone who would do something like this would be well into adulthood, but he’s just a college freshman and so that raises all kinds of questions about how you end up in the kind of state of mind that you have to be in to do something like this.”

Folberg also noted the support of the community during this time and the number of donations the temple received for repairs.

“People at their best respond to tragedy and hate with love and goodness and we’re seeing a lot of that,” Folberg said.

The arson charge follows multiple incidents of hate occurring towards the Jewish community in Texas. Within a span of 10 days, between October to November, the Anti-Defamation League in Austin found that at least 17 antisemitic incidents were reported in Texas.

Local officials and community advocates have condemned the acts and called for better accountability.

“When we see acts of hate, they’re jarring. They’re hurtful, and they are scary. But they are not surprising,” Austin Mayor Steve Adler said, according to the Houston Chronicle. “Because there are people who do hateful and horrible, wrongful things.”

At this time, Sechriest does not face any hate crime charges. However, the FBI agent who wrote the affidavit allegedly specializes in cases related to hate crimes, KXAN reported.

“The FBI has to make some kind of determination internally to see if this is an allegation that can be proven or rather this was a random circumstance,” Charlie Baird, a retired Austin judge, told KXAN.

He added that: “It is very rare for an individual to be charged with a hate crime against a structure versus a hate crime against an individual.”

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California Rep. Jackie Speier, a Democrat who survived the 1978 Jonestown cult shooting that murdered her boss, Rep. Leo Ryan, announced Tuesday that she would retire after a long career in Bay Area politics.

The current configuration of Speier’s 14th Congressional District, which includes most of San Mateo County and a portion of San Francisco to the north, is heavily Democratic turf at 78-20 Biden, and the new version of this constituency is likely to look similar once the state’s Independent Redistricting Commission completes its work. Because this area is so blue, there’s a good chance that next June’s top-two primary will result in a general election between two Democrats.

Speier got her start in politics as an intern for then-Assemblyman Ryan, and she joined his staff after he was elected to Congress in 1972. Speier was part of the delegation that traveled to Guyana to probe allegations that some of Ryan’s constituents were being held against their will at Jim Jones’ Peoples Temple. She told Roll Call in 2015, “Back in 1978, there were not many women in high-ranking positions in Congress. I felt if I didn’t go, it would be a step back for women holding these high positions. I thought, ‘I can’t not go.’”

The party, which did find some members who wanted to escape, was ambushed at the airport by Jones’ assassins. The attack, which took place just before Jones killed himself and murdered 900 of his followers, resulted in the deaths of Ryan, three journalists, and one former cult member trying to leave. Speier herself was shot five times and spent 22 hours waiting for help; she recounted in her Tuesday retirement announcement, “Forty-three years ago this week, I was lying on an airstrip in the jungles of Guyana with five bullet holes in my body. I vowed that if I survived, I would dedicate my life to public service. I lived, and I survived.”

Speier, who underwent 10 surgeries over the next two months, campaigned in the following year’s special election to succeed Ryan, who remains the only member of Congress to die in the line of duty, in what was then numbered the 11th District. Speier, though, ended up placing sixth in the all-party primary with 16% of the vote in a contest that was ultimately won by Republican Bill Royer. In 1980, she prevailed in a race for the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors by defeating a 20-year incumbent; during that same year, Democrat Tom Lantos, who is the only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress, beat Royer.

​​Speier spent the following years in local government before winning a state Assembly race in 1986 and a state Senate contest in 1998. In 2006, Speier entered the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor (the Golden State would pass a ballot measure in 2010 to set up its current top-two primary system), but she lost 43-40 to state Commissioner of Insurance John Garamendi; Garamendi defeated Republican Tom McClintock in a close race that fall, and the trio would later spend over a decade serving together in the House.

​​Speier in late 2007 began making preparations to challenge Lantos for what was now numbered the 12th District, and she even released a poll showing her decisively beating him in a primary. Lantos, though, announced soon after that he was retiring because he had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer, and he went on to endorse his would-be rival ​​Speier as his successor. Lantos died in February of 2008, and ​​Speier had no serious opposition in the special election to succeed him.

​​Speier made national headlines in 2011 when, in response to then-Indiana Rep. Mike Pence’s attempt to defund Planned Parenthood, she became one of the first members of Congress to disclose that she had once had an abortion. The congresswoman took to the House floor after New Jersey Republican Chris Smith used graphic details to emphasize his own opposition to abortion rights and said, “I had a procedure at 17 weeks pregnant with a child who moved from the vagina into the cervix. And that procedure that you just described is a procedure that I endured.”

​​Speier also made a name for herself as an advocate for sexual assault survivors. In 2017, as the #MeToo movement was beginning, ​​Speier also revealed that she had been sexually assaulted by a senior staffer while she worked as a congressional aide. “I know what it’s like to keep these things hidden deep down inside,” the congresswoman revealed in a video. In September, Congress passed the new National Defense Authorization Act that included her amendments to change how the military handled sexual assault and harassment allegations.  

​​Speier mulled a 2010 campaign for state attorney general, but she opted to stay in Congress and never had any trouble getting reelected. In 2015 she said of Jonestown, “I had moved beyond being a survivor. It’s part of my life story, but it’s a small part of my life story.”

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Finally, after four years of nothing but lying, race-baiting, and removing much-needed federal protection of land and wildlife,  we have a president who cares about the Indigenous land we stand on and the people who were slaughtered on it by the colonizers. 

Monday, during the White House Tribal Nations Summit, President Joe Biden signed an executive order directing the departments of Justice, Interior, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services to create a “comprehensive strategy to improve public safety and justice for Native Americans and address the “epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous people.” 

Biden additionally proposed a 20-year ban on federal oil and gas leases in Chaco Canyon and surrounding areas in northwest New Mexico, a sacred tribal site that contains valuable oil and gas. 

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“Chaco Canyon is a sacred place that holds deep meaning for the Indigenous peoples whose ancestors lived, worked, and thrived in that high desert community,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the nation’s first Native American Cabinet secretary, said in a statement. “Now is the time to consider more enduring protections for the living landscape that is Chaco, so that we can pass on this rich cultural legacy to future generations.”

The plan is to block new oil and gas leases within a 10-mile radius of Chaco Culture National Historical Park.

“We support the protection of the Chaco Canyon region due to its historical and cultural significance for our Navajo people, but we also have to consider the concerns and rights of our Navajo citizens who have allotment lands,” Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez said in a statement, according to The Washington Post. 

Haaland introduced Biden Monday, highlighting the historic nature of her position as the first Native American appointee. 

“We are still here and we have a voice,” Haaland said.

But while representation matters, the reality is that Haaland has a plethora of festering issues left behind by her predecessors. One of those is the poisonous Canadian-owned White Mesa mill—the only uranium mill operating in the U.S., located 1 mile from Bears Ears National Monument in San Juan County, Utah.

Members of both the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and the Navajo Nation are sick and tired of having to live on contaminated land. 

The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe believes that one of the mill’s tailings ponds is leaking and polluting a shallow aquifer under the community with toxic chemicals. 

The mill was built in 1979 to process uranium ore from the surrounding region. About a decade later, the mill’s operator also started running “alternate feeds” through the mill and discarding the resulting wastes onsite. These feeds include uranium-bearing radioactive and toxic wastes from other contaminated places around the country.

The tribe believes that the mill is emitting a carcinogenic gas called radon, despite the company’s denial and assertions that the radon levels are safe. (Are there any safe levels of a carcinogenic gas?) Radon is the No. 1 cause of lung cancer among nonsmokers, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Yolanda Badback, a Ute Mountain Ute tribal member and a lifelong resident of White Mesa, told Daily Kos the mill sits on sacred ancestral lands. 

“It’s close to our reservation with our sacred burial sites there and our native herbs,” Badback says. 

“When the mill was being built they dug up our ancestors that were buried there. We don’t know what the remains are. Our herbs aren’t even growing in the area. It’s all dried up. So, now we have to drive a distance to find the herbs we need.” 

Badback says a lot of community members don’t talk about their health issues, but people complain about breathing problems such as asthma, and their grandkids have it. She’s not sure it’s due to the mill, but the issues are something community members discuss among themselves. 

The mill has never addressed the concerns of the community, but Badback says the mill does donate money to the schools in the nearby city of Blanding, Utah, located north of the mill. White Mesa is about 5 miles south of the mill. 

Blanding is about 66% white and 9% Native. It was settled in the late 19th century by Mormon settlers and according to Badback, many of the residents are employed by the White Mesa mill. 

Scott Clow, Ute Mountain Ute’s environmental programs director, says that in 2012 the mill had an accident that created a discolored cloud. Locals call it the Brown Cloud Incident.

A man who asked to be identified simply as “Howard” told The Daily Utah Chronicle in 2017 that he remembers smelling uranium in the 1980s when visiting a convenience store near the mill. The store has since closed as a toxic, radioactive site.

“There’s a big sign there and they say closed that store down,” Howard said. “And it’s funny, because why didn’t they close it down way back?” He describes the smell as “a strong metal odor, like cooper.”

Badback jokes to Daily Kos that some days she wishes the mill would miraculously explode.

“Living on the res day-to-day you feel deep down, we have tribal members without transportation, we want clean air for our people to be able to be outside and get their exercise. We want our Native herbs and be able to hunt for the winter. All this stuff is being taken away from us. It hurts us to see all of these things taken away slowly. Our future generations are being hurt. How are they going to succeed in life with this mill here and the company lying to them, telling them there’s no harm, but come to find out when they’re older that it was harmful, ” Badback says. 

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As of this year, there were more than 220,000 bridges needing repair in the U.S. according to the American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) using the U.S. Department of Transportation’s bridge inventory database, and 45,000 of them are classified as “structurally deficient.” ARTBA determined that 40% of bridges needed to be replaced entirely or repaired, including a third of all the bridges on interstate highways.

That’s a lot of work, and a lot of money—an estimated $41.8 billion. At the current rate of construction, it would take 40 years to fix them all, ARTBA estimated. The American Society of Civil Engineers is even more pessimistic on the state of our infrastructure, estimating it would take 50 years to fix them all and $125 billion to fix. The good news as of this week is that it’s not going to take 40 or 50 years to fix them all, because the current rate of funding and construction is going to get a big boost, and  President Joe Biden gets to deliver those good tidings because President Joe Biden got a new infusion of $550 billion in hard infrastructure spending in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

He’s starting in Woodstock, New Hampshire, which has an 82-year-old steel bridge spanning the Pemigewasset River that’s been on the state’s “red list” of structurally deficient bridges, requiring two safety inspections every year. “That’s what this law is all about: keeping communities safer and more efficient,” Biden said at Monday’s bill signing, announcing this trip to New Hampshire. “On Wednesday,” he said, “I’ll be in Detroit to meet with the UAW workers who are building the next generation of electric vehicles. And that’s just the beginning.”

“Here in Washington, we’ve heard countless speeches and promises, white papers from experts, but today we’re finally getting this done,” Biden said Monday. “So my message to the American people is this: America’s moving again, and your life is going to change for the better.”

He acknowledged the difficulty of getting this bill done. “I know you’re tired of the bickering in Washington, frustrated by the negativity,” Biden said. “And you just want us to focus on your needs, your concerns and the conversations that are taking place at your kitchen table, conversations as profound as they are ordinary.” To put a point on that, he added this: “I also want to thank Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for voting for this bill and talking about how useful and important it is.”

That could either be a sincere “thank you” to McConnell, or a more pointed remark about the chaos among Republicans—stoked by Trump—and efforts to excommunicate House Republicans who helped get the bill passed. It doesn’t hurt to keep McConnell, who refused to attend the signing ceremony, reminded of the thin ice he’s maneuvering every day.

“[W]hen you see those projects start in your hometowns,” Biden said Monday, “I want you to feel what I feel: pride — pride in what we can do together as the United States of America.” He didn’t focus much on the second part of his agenda, but did suggest that the job isn’t done with the passage of hard infrastructure.

“Folks, you know, the same goes for my plan to build back better for the people—getting folks back to work and reducing costs of things like child care, elder care, housing, health care, prescription drugs, and meeting the moment on climate change,” he told the gathering. Vice President Kamala Harris reinforced that point in her remarks.

“This legislation, as significant as it is, as historic as it is, is part one of two,” Harris said. “Congress must also pass the Build Back Better Act.”

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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy finally got around to responding to Rep. Paul Gosar’s violent anime video on Monday, close to a week after the video was posted. And on Tuesday, a closed-door House Republican meeting reportedly got acrimonious—but with members far more upset about some Republicans having voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill than about one of their own posting murder fantasies about government officials.

In the edited video, which David Neiwert described as a white nationalist dog whistle, Gosar is shown killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and attacking President Joe Biden in the midst of a fight against evil “titans” attacking human civilization. It’s Gosar as white savior, and it drew a Twitter warning, though far from the ban it deserved.

McCarthy remained silent, while some Democrats talked about censuring Gosar. Monday, McCarthy spoke—but stopped way, way short of condemnation.

“He took the video down and he made a statement that he doesn’t support violence to anybody. Nobody should have violence [against them],” McCarthy told CNN. “I called him when I heard about the video, and he made a statement that he doesn’t support violence, and he took the video down.” 

The video was up for two days, and Gosar’s statement defended the video as “truly a symbolic portrayal of a fight over immigration policy.” He claimed he doesn’t “espouse violence or harm towards any member of Congress or Mr. Biden,” but, you know, he posted a video pretty graphically suggesting the opposite.

Politico’s Olivia Beavers tweeted that at the Tuesday meeting, Gosar “spoke behind closed doors to explain to members his reason for the anime video, saying it was to reach a wider audience, sources tell me.  McCarthy told members at conference that Rs should be united on this & that Dems don’t punish their own for comments.” 

After the meeting, McCarthy told reporters that Gosar “didn’t see it before it posted … It was not his intent to show any harm. What I said to conference was, cannot accept any action or showing of violence to another member.” The old “I didn’t see it, it was the social media staffer’s fault” line—except for the part where Gosar didn’t take the video down for two days, days during which he was absolutely told what was in it, even if he still didn’t bother to watch.

By contrast, Beavers reports that McCarthy “left it more open ended for Republicans who voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill, basically saying now is not the time.” Got that? Post a video of yourself killing a coworker and attacking the president of the United States, it’s time for your party to be united and not punish you. Support a bill funding infrastructure that got the support of many Senate Republicans, and we’re going to consider punishing you in the future. At that, Rep. Chip Roy reportedly got heated … because he’s angry that the Republicans who voted for the bill won’t be punished now.

The rot of the Republican Party doesn’t just come from Donald Trump. The party’s embrace of violence as a tool against political opponents is increasingly widespread, as shown by the fact that Gosar is getting more of a pass than members who voted for a bill that had already drawn significant Republican support in the Senate. They’re telling us who they are. It’s time for the media and independent voters to believe them.

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A ringleader of the violent neofascist and racist group, the Proud Boys, asked for release from a D.C. jail on Monday, begging the court to let him serve out the remainder of his five-month sentence at home because of alleged harassment and conditions he claims are inhumane.

Henry “Enrique” Tarrio made the request to Judge Jonathan Pittman during a remote hearing at the D.C. Superior Court. Tarrio, originally from Miami, Florida, is currently serving a five-month sentence for two counts: destruction of property, and attempted possession of a large capacity firearm magazine. So far, he has served just 70 days of his sentence.

“I’ve been in jail before, but what I’ve seen here, I’ve never seen before. It’s insane. It’s a gulag,” Tarrio told the judge on Monday. “This place needs to be shut down immediately.”

On Dec. 12, Tarrio arrived in Washington, D.C. with a mass of fellow Proud Boys and other devotees of Donald Trump to support the former president’s bogus and widely debunked claims to victory in the 2020 election. What followed was a day of bloody clashes between Proud Boys, the president’s supporters, counterprotesters, and activists for the Black Lives Matter movement. Four people were stabbed, 33 were arrested and nine were hospitalized, including two police officers who suffered nonfatal injuries.

Tarrio took a public tour of the White House that day, before stealing the Black Lives Matter banner from the Asbury United Methodist Church and setting it ablaze. According to the Washington Post, a victim impact statement delivered at Tarrio’s sentencing this August highlighted how Tarrio’s racist vandalism was especially painful for older members of the church’s congregation—many of whom are Black—and are “direct descendants of individuals who traveled north during the Great Migration,” a period when millions of Black people fled the choking oppression of the South.

A warrant was ultimately issued for Tarrio’s arrest after the banner burning. On Jan. 4, just two days before the insurrection at the Capitol, he was stopped by D.C. police after arriving at an area airport and heading downtown. During the stop, police found two high-capacity rifle magazines, both of which were empty but could hold 60 rounds each. Tarrio told police he bought the magazines online and planned on giving them to a person who was in D.C. to attend the pro-Trump march on Jan. 6.

Tarrio ultimately struck a plea bargain, managing to get one of the felony possession charges dropped altogether and the other felony possession charge downgraded to a misdemeanor.

On Monday, Tarrio alleged he was regularly subjected to cruel conditions at the Central Detention Facility in Washington. His cell, he claimed, is regularly flooded with filthy water pouring in from a neighboring cell’s toilet and the halls are rife with smoke from inmates burning toilet paper.

“There are feces in my room right now,” Tarrio said during Monday’s hearing. “I have to clean other people’s feces off the ground with my own toilet paper.”

The chauvinist group’s leader also complained of shoddy medical care and poor food, and abuse from corrections staff.

“I’m deathly afraid that something is going to happen to me,” Tarrio said.

Tarrio has filed no less than three separate complaints about the conditions of the facility, prompting a U.S. prosecutor to say on Monday that the Miami native had “abused the grievance process.” Prosecutors also said the flooding of Tarrio’s cell was because a prisoner in a nearby cell was doing it in protest. Tarrio had already been moved to another cell by the time he appeared in court Monday.  

Tarrio’s attorney Lucas Danise alleges the Proud Boy is being “intimidated and antagonized by correctional staff” specifically so he will not complain about conditions.

Grievances about conditions inside the jail are not unique.

Last month, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, an appointee of former President Ronald Reagan, held the director of the D.C. Department of Corrections and the D.C. jail’s warden in contempt of court and ordered the Department of Justice to investigate claims of civil rights abuses.

Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Marshals Service struck a deal on Oct. 13 to improve conditions. Notably, the contempt finding was prompted after a surprise inspection occurred in the wake of a complaint from Christopher Worrell, a Proud Boy who authorities allege assaulted police officers with pepper spray during the melee at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Worrell claimed he was delayed medical care after injuries to his hand and wrist.

Worrell, who has been diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, entered a not guilty plea in April to five charges associated with the assault on the Capitol. He had been incarcerated from March until his release in November.

Prosecutors insisted late last month that Worrell’s claims of medical mistreatment at the facility are false, citing a statement from Worrell’s orthopedic specialist that a requested surgery for his hand was not urgent or medically necessary, but rather, an elective procedure.

On Nov. 4, Judge Lamberth released Worrell so he could receive cancer treatments. Worrell was released just a few days after the U.S. Marshal Service had agreed to transfer 400 federal prisoners to another facility due to poor conditions at the jail.

During Tarrio’s hearing Monday, Judge Pittman said it was “obviously distressing” to hear of the conditions alleged by Tarrio but it begged a question of its own.

“How is Mr. Tarrio’s condition different than any other inmate at the jail?” Pittman said, suggesting that the Proud Boy ringleader wasn’t being specifically targeted for bad treatment at the jail.

Notably, Tarrio’s assertions Monday are a significant departure from his statements online in the early days of his incarceration.

“I kinda like prison. Don’t tell the guards though. If they think I’m enjoying myself, they’ll find ways to punish me,” Tarrio wrote on his Telegram account. “Someone send me an Xbox X and we can play warzone.”

Pittman is expected to rule by the end of this week on whether Tarrio’s sentence should be shortened to the requested 90 days.

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The trial for three men—accused of murdering Ahmaud Arbery after spotting him running near a home under construction in their coastal Georgia neighborhood—has entered its eighth day on Tuesday, following a day of factual witnesses called by the state and highly-publicized complaints about Black pastors being allowed in the courtroom. 

Those complaints all came from one defense attorney, Kevin Gough, representing William “Roddie” Bryan. Bryan filmed moments of the encounter that ended with Arbery’s death on Feb. 23, 2020. The white Brunswick resident is accused, alongside former cop Gregory McMichael and his son, Travis.

After issuing a half-hearted apology for targeting Black pastors, Gough again voiced similar complaints at the beginning and end of trial proceedings on Monday. At one point, Gough attempted to trigger a mistrial because he was opposed to civil rights icon Rev. Jesse Jackson joining Arbery’s parents in court. Judge Timothy Walmsley refused to entertain such a motion, denying Gough’s request. So hours later—after seeing photographs of shotgun wounds in Arbery’s chest, near his left armpit, and in his right wrist and after hearing from a firearm and tool mark examiner just how close the shotgun used had to be to Arbery—Gough again attempted to press the alleged issue of unfairness his client faced. 

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A new poll confirms that when Republicans scream about critical race theory, what they really mean is they oppose the teaching of anything about racism in the U.S. 

A Washington Post/ABC News poll asked respondents: “How much do you think public schools should teach about how the history of racism affects America today?” A majority of Republicans said it should be taught not so much or not at all. That’s not an objection to critical race theory even in its most expansive definition. That’s an objection to kids learning that, possibly within their parents’ lifetimes but definitely within their grandparents’ lifetimes, the U.S. had explicitly racist laws that have continuing effects today.

The Post/ABC poll follows a Monmouth University poll that asked a slightly different question: Should public schools teach the history of racism? That question didn’t ask about how the history of racism affects America today, but it still found a lot of opposition among Republicans: 43% disapproved somewhat or strongly—and in fact, 34% strongly disapproved. Of even teaching the history of racism in a country where slavery was not just legal but embraced in much of the country for more than 200 years. Where following slavery, Black people’s rights were sharply limited, including their rights to change jobs without their boss’ permission. Where Jim Crow laws prevented Black people from attending the same schools, eating in the same restaurants, living in the same neighborhoods, and drinking from the same water fountains as white people through well over half of the 20th century. Where Black people were killed for voting.

Republicans do not want children knowing that history.

In 1960, federal marshals had to escort 6-year-old Ruby Bridges to school every day because as the first Black child going to the all-white William Frantz Elementary School, she had to walk past crowds of angry white people screaming slurs at her. Bridges is now just 67 years old, highlighting how close in the past that time is, and how its effects cannot have disappeared, because the people who lived it—not just Bridges, but the white children whose parents pulled them out of school rather than attend with a single Black child—are still here.

Children’s books about Bridges’ own childhood experience are among those Republicans are trying to ban in some places. Critical race theory? No, we’re talking about books with simple declarative sentences noting that some white people didn’t want Black children going to school with white children, but the government said Ruby Bridges should be allowed to, and she did, and now Black children and white children go to school together and it is a good thing. That is the kind of content at the center of some “critical race theory” fights.

But of course while there’s tons of organic, deeply felt racism at work here, there’s also a top-down campaign. Fox News issued its marching orders in the spring with a big focus on the alleged teaching of critical race theory in K-12 public schools, while CRT scandal mastermind Christopher Rufo, a Republican think tank guy, bragged that he was manufacturing the controversy, writing: “The goal is to have the public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think ‘critical race theory.’ We have decodified the term and will recodify it to annex the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans.” This is code where “cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans” means “teaching things about racism that make Republicans uncomfortable,” but close enough.

After a big burst of critical race theory coverage in spring 2021, Fox News let the issue die down. Then it produced another surge on the topic in the fall, which—guess what—died down immediately after the Virginia elections:

Democrats need to be willing and able to answer this with some blunt truths: It’s not about critical race theory. Whether that is or isn’t taught in K-12 schools (it isn’t), what Republicans are really opposed to is any teaching about the history of racism in the U.S. and especially how that history affects the nation today. They are opposed to the teaching of things that happened to children just 60 years ago. 

And Democrats need to be willing and able to confront the reality of media asymmetry, where Republicans have a huge partisan noise machine blasting out talking points while Democrats sit around hoping the traditional media will cover things factually. “Until we have an apparatus on the same scale that the Right does we’ll always be behind in both communicating with voters directly and influencing traditional media coverage,” Melissa Ryan, a Democratic strategist who focuses on extremism and disinformation, wrote recently. “We need to nationalize and scale lefty media with the same energy we’ve spent nationalizing campaigns and political organizations.”

That doesn’t mean copying the right-wing media’s propensity to lie, she stressed. “I’m not talking about propaganda, false news, or outrage for outrage’s sake. I don’t think we need to replicate their culture war mentality, nor would it work if the left tried. We do need to offer an alternative vision, and we need vehicles to communicate that vision.” And those vehicles need to be funded and they need to be treated with the seriousness that Republicans treat Fox News and OAN and a raft of Republican pundits and publications, rather than being sidelined as not serious enough in favor of Democrats begging The New York Times and CNN, yet again, to cover the reality of how extreme Republicans have become and the widespread popularity of the policies Democrats are trying to pass.

Otherwise it’s going to be a constant rinse and repeat of Republicans whipping up a culture war just in time for an election, their base getting the message, and Democrats failing at pushback. That puts the United States in a very scary place within not very many more years at all.

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Is it possible for both a company and the individuals working for said company to be filled with more s@%t than even the sum of their parts? Fox News has time and time again defied all constructs of decency, intelligence, and morality. On Friday, Fox News sent out invites to raise themselves some money at what is being called an “award show.” The network that has turned its audience into the biggest believers in public health misinformation want everyone to meet up!

The event is Fox Nation’s Patriot Awards 2021! Wowsers! It will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 17, in Hollywood, Florida! (GET IT?!?!?!?!?!) Tickets range from $125 for a plain old Patriot ticket up to $500 for a Patriot Gold ticket. “Special guests” will include all kinds of Fox Nation favorites like Tucker Carlson. Barf! Patriots are about freedom and Trump and the freedom to be you and me. No, it means the freedom to just be them everyone else be damned!

Probably unrelated fine print from the event: “IMPORTANT: In order to attend The Patriot Awards, all attendees must show either (A) COVID vaccine card OR (B) a negative COVID test taken 72 hours prior to the event. Before entering the venue, your vaccine card or negative test will be verified by a Fox Nation team member in front of Hard Rock Live. Once confirmed, a colored wristband corresponding to the package you purchased will be provided and you can proceed into the venue.”

Maybe we read that small print wrong? It is hard to believe that one of the prime vomiters of fake science information, Fox News, would demand anyone be forced to follow actual science. If you look further down the page, some more important “COVID Guidelines and Details”:

• In order to attend this event attendee must show either a COVID vaccine card OR a negative COVID test 72 hours prior to the event.
• There will be a mandatory check point on site for all attendees prior to entering the venue doors.

Does this fly in the face of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ prohibition against “any business entity, governmental entity or educational institution” requiring proof of vaccination? Because it sort of sounds like it does. And according to DeSantis, violators of this policy will be hit with “a $5,000 fine per individual and separate violations against the business, governmental entity or school.” Here’s the time DeSantis created an executive order saying the same thing.

Oh well! Who will be at this COVID VACCINE-roped event?

• Dan Bongino! Bongino’s history of NRA/MAGA jingoism includes recently losing some of his radio affiliations because of his anti-vaccine and public health mandate misinformation stances!
• Tucker Carlson! The ways in which Carlson has spread anti-vaxx disinformation have been well covered. Tucker has even been aligned with anti-free speech and anti-vaxx misinformant dirtbag Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Here’s Tucker letting RFK Jr. sell his lies in video format.
• Sean Hannity! Hannity has spent considerable time undermining how effective the COVID-19 vaccines are. It’s a truly detestable bit of business from a truly detestable human being.
• Brian Kilmeade! Kilmeade might spend a considerable amount of time yelling at Black people out front of the event.*

Fox News: News you can go to hell watching.

*He won’t. He’s full of shit.