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In the era of Donald Trump, a major plank of the modern Republican Party platform is outright racism. Whether its the leader of the free world telling four congresswomen of color to go back to the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came, a U.S. senator saying he wasnt afraid of the January 6 rioters but would have been worried if they were Black Lives Matter protesters, a U.S. congresswoman speaking at event put on by a white nationalist, the complete and total hysteria over the idea of children being taught about systemic racism, or a prime-time conservative hosts regular white-power hour, this hateful little ecosystem just loves to appeal to the lowest common denominator by demonizing anyone who isnt white. But when their actions actually have consequences? And it turns out their hate speech matters? And people have the audacity to suggest theyre part of the problem? Well, they really get their noses out of joint.

Take, for instance, New York representative Elise Stefanik. Following the horrifying mass shooting in a Buffalo grocery store that left 10 dead after a gunman allegedly targeted Black people, The Washington Post and other outlets thought it was important to note that Stefanik, the third-ranking House Republican, among other conservatives, had previously echoed the great replacement rhetoric (the conspiracy theory that liberal politicians are trying to replace white Americans with nonwhite immigrants). In a series of Facebook ads highlighted in a tweet Saturday by Representative Adam Kinzinger, Stefaniks campaign claimed in September 2021 that Democrats were letting undocumented immigrants into the country in an attempt to ultimately silence Republican (read: white) voters. Radical Democrats are planning their most aggressive move yet: a PERMANENT ELECTION INSURRECTION, reads one of the ads, with an accompanying image of migrants reflected in Joe Bidens sunglasses. Their plan to grant amnesty to 11 MILLION illegal immigrants will overthrow our current electorate and create a permanent liberal majority in Washington. At the time they ran, Albanys Times Union, the congresswomans hometown paper, called the ads despicable, and blasted her in an editorial, writing that she isnt so brazen as to use [Nazi-inspired] slogans themselves; rather, she couches the hate in alarmist anti-immigrant rhetoric thats become standard fare for the party of Donald Trump. As The New York Times reported over the weekend, Payton Gendron, the 18-year-old white suspect in the Buffalo shooting, had posted a hate-filled manifesto online, in which he wrote of his plan to shoot Black shoppers and went on racist, anti-immigrant rants arguing that white Americans are at risk of being replaced by people of color. Kind of like the ads run by one Elise Stefanik!

The congresswoman, though, did not appreciate any insinuation whatsoever that someone might have actually taken her words to heart, and in a statement released on Sunday, a senior adviser, Alex deGrasse, insisted that the implication or attempt to blame the heinous shooting in Buffalo on the congresswoman is a new disgusting low for the Left, their Never Trump allies, and the sycophant stenographers in the media. The shooting was an act of evil and the criminal should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. He added, Despite sickening and false reporting, [the] congresswoman has never advocated for any racist position or made a racist statement, a claim that is obviously not true at all. On Monday, Team Stefanik followed that up with a press release accusing the media of disgraceful, dishonest, and dangerous smears.

Stefanik, of course, is far from the only member of her party to push racist rhetoric intended to rile up the base. As the Post notes, Pennsylvania Republican representative Scott Perry, current chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus,saidduring a subcommittee hearing concerning migration from Central America last year that many Americans believe were replacing national-born Americannative-born Americansto permanently transform the political landscape of this very nation. Senator Ron Johnson has suggested that Democrats want to remake the demographics of America to ensure theirthat they stay in power forever. Texas lieutenant governor Dan Patrick has declared that the revolution has begun and Democrats are trying to take over our country without firing a shot by allowing immigrants to enter the country who will vote for Democrats to thank the Democrats and Biden for bringing them here. Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance has claimed Democrats want to let in 15 million immigrants into the U.S. to shiftthe democratic makeup of this country so Republicans [will] never win a national election in this country ever again.

And, of course, we cant forget the fear-mongering, hateful commentary that appears on Fox News on a daily basis, which has included Laura Ingrahams claim that Democrats want to replace you, the American voters, with newly amnestied citizens and an ever-increasing number of chain migrants; Jeanine Pirros that Democrats immigration policies are a plot to remake America, to replace American citizens with illegals who will vote for the Democrats; and basically everything that comes out of Tucker Carlsons mouth

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Republicans Are Furious People Remember Theyve Been Pushing the Racist Great Replacement Rhetoric for Years - Vanity Fair

DES MOINES, Iowa Five Iowa House Republicans received money from theIowa State Education Association (ISEA) PACin January, right before the start of the 2022 legislative session, according to their campaign finance disclosure statements.

The Iowa House of Representatives and Iowa Senate remain deadlocked overSF 2369, a bill that would create an education savings account program capped at 10,000 students. The ESAs are called Student First Scholarships and are one of Gov. Kim Reynolds top priorities.

The Student First Scholarships would be implemented during the 2022-2023 school year. Scholarships would be worth 70 percent of the states per-pupil spending, currently $5,359, for qualified education expenses defined in the bill, such as non-public school tuition, textbooks, curriculum, tutoring, non-public online education, and vocational education.

A student must be enrolled in a public school for the 2021-22 school year and have a household income that does not exceed 400 percent of the federal poverty level or have an individualized educational plan to be eligible. The scholarships in the first year will be capped at 10,000.

The remaining 30 percent will be reallocated to school districts that participate in operational sharing among districts.

The Iowa Senatepassed the bill in March. However, the Iowa House has not voted on the bill and is the primary reason the legislature is still in session into mid-May.

The Iowa State Education Association has been firmly against school choice measures and is registered opposed to SF 2369. The Iowa Torch checked the campaign financial disclosure statements of every Iowa House Republican and found five who received money from the ISEA PAC.

The Iowa House Republican receiving the largest donation from ISEA PAC was the Iowa House Education Committee Chair, State Rep. Dustin Hite, R-New Sharon,who received $2500 on January 9, 2022.

Hite is being challenged in the newIowa House District 88in the June 7 Republican Primary by Helena Hayes of New Sharon, endorsed by The FAMiLY Leader on Thursday.

State Rep. Megan Jones, R-Sioux Rapids,received $1000 from ISEA PAC on January 7, 2022. She is running in the newIowa House District 6and is running unopposed in the June 7 Republican primary.

State Rep. Brent Siegrist, R-Council Bluffs,received $1000 from ISEA PAC on January 9, 2022. He is not running for re-election.

State Rep. Brian Lohse, R-Bondurant,received $500 from ISEA PAC on January 6, 2022. He is running unopposed in the Republican primary in the newIowa House District 45.

State Rep. Jane Bloomingdale, R-Northwood,received $500 from ISEA PAC on January 6, 2022. Bloomingdale has a primary challenger in the newIowa House District 60. Deb Hild of Clear Lake is attempting to unseat her for the Republican nomination.

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Five Iowa House Republicans took money from teachers' union PAC - The Iowa Torch

The massacre by a white supremacist gunman of Black shoppers at a Buffalo grocery store has drawn renewed scrutiny of Republican figures in the US who have embraced the racist great replacement theory he is alleged to have used as justification for the murders.

Born from far-right nationalism, the extremist ideology expounding the view that immigration will ultimately destroy white values and western civilization has found favor not only with media figures, such as the conservative Fox News host Tucker Carlson, but a host of elected politicians and others seeking office.

Those who have convinced themselves Democrats are operating an open-door immigration policy to replace Republican voters with people of color and keep themselves in power permanently include Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, chair of her partys House conference, and JD Vance, the Donald Trump-approved Republican nominee to represent Ohio in the US Senate.

After the Buffalo shooting, the pair are among those receiving blowback for embracing the conspiracy theory that the killer referred to repeatedly in an online manifesto authorities believe he posted to justify the attack.

Citing despicable Facebook advertisements promoting great replacement theory Stefanik utilized in 2021, in which she said radical Democrats are planning their most aggressive move yet: a permanent election insurrection, the Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger blasted his House colleague.

Did you know: @EliseStefanik pushes white replacement theory? The #3 in the house GOP @Liz_Cheney got removed for demanding truth. @GOPLeader should be asked about this, he said in a tweet, referring to Wyoming Republican Cheneys ousting by the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, over her place on the 6 January panel.

Kinzinger, of Illinois, is the only other Republican on the House committee looking into Donald Trumps efforts to overturn his election defeat to Joe Biden. He also attacked Stefanik this week for a tweet in which she accused Democrats of being pedo grifters meaning pedophiles for providing baby formula for immigrant babies at the southern border during a national shortage.

Meanwhile Vance, who credits the former presidents endorsement for helping him to victory in last weeks Ohio primary, is another vocal exponent of the discredited theory.

Youre talking about a shift in the democratic makeup of this country that would mean we never win, meaning Republicans would never win a national election in this country ever again, he claimed at a campaign event in Portsmouth last month.

Josh Mandel, who was defeated by Vance, went even further in an interview on Breitbart in October.

This is about changing the face of America, figuratively and literally. They are trying to change our culture, change our demographics and change our electorate. This is all about power, he said, without acknowledging that only US citizens can vote, and the path to citizenship can take legal immigrants many years.

In a study of the history of great replacement theory in Republican circles, Vice notes that it isnt new to American politicians. In 2017, the Iowa congressman Steve King, a fierce Trump loyalist, said in a tweet: We cant restore our civilization with somebody elses babies.

Arguably the biggest rightwing apologist for great replacement theory, however, is Carlson, the Fox News host.

On his show last year, he stated: Demographic change is the key to the Democratic partys political ambitions. In order to win and maintain power, Democrats plan to change the population of the country.

His nefarious stance, the Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent wrote: exposes the ideological underbelly of the broader right-wing populist nationalist movement that he and his defenders champion.

Buffalo was not the first time a mass shooter with white supremacist motivations had cited great replacement theory. It also featured in the manifesto of a gunman who slaughtered 51 Muslims at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March 2019.

After the Christchurch murders, the UK-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a counter-extremist organization, issued a report that found the once-obscure ideology was promoted so effectively by the far right that it became ingrained in political discourse, and that social media references doubled in four years to more than 1.5m Twitter mentions alone.

Its shocking to see the extent to which extreme-right concepts such as the great replacement theory and calls for remigration have entered mainstream political discourse and are now referenced by politicians who head states and sit in parliaments, Julia Ebner, the reports co-author, said at the time.

The effect of the backlash against US politicians promoting the theory following the Buffalo attack remains to be seen. The pugilistic Stefanik, for example, was not backing down on Sunday, making no mention of the massacre in her home state as she retweeted criticism of Democrats over the baby formula shortage.

Her only social media comment to date, a single tweet on Saturday, failed to acknowledge the race of most of the victims, or the circumstances or motivation for the shooting.

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Scrutiny of Republicans who embrace great replacement theory after Buffalo massacre - The Guardian US

If I have a single cause in lifeaside from my insistence on the proper use of was and were, together with that of less and fewerits my apparently quixotic quest to demand contextual information be included in news media accounts of political (and other) events. I wrote about this last week as it related to The New York Times (admirable) commitment to long-form investigations. Today, Im inspired by a rather obscure story, also reported by the Times about a fight going on in the Department of Homeland Security.

But first, some meta-media context: As David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) pointed out in a tweet, when people like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg speak of free speech, what they mean is speech in the control of the wealthiest people in the world.

The second piece of meta-context to always keep in mind when reading about U.S. politics is how deeply the contemporary right wing is embedded with the enemies of democracy, including its murderous dictators. Its not just that CPAC is having its convention in Victor Orbans Hungary. Nor is it just that Fox News is a more effective propaganda tool for Vladimir Putin than RT ever was. Its also that the Republicans keep nominating candidates who are either personally, financially, or via their staffs playing for Putins team as well. It wasnt just Trump and the people with whom he peopled the government. It was, as Steve Schmidt revealed this week, also John McCain, something that was originally reported by The Nation back during the 2008 campaign but lied about by the campaign and ignored by the McCain-besotted mainstream media. That article noted, and Schmidt has now confirmed, that despite McCains tough talk, behind the scenes his top advisers have cultivated deep ties with Russias oligarchyindeed, they have promoted the Kremlins geopolitical and economic interests, as well as some of its most unsavory business figures, through greedy cynicism and geopolitical stupor. (If one wants to be really cruel or learn something important about the psychology of the Washington press corps, go back and read the loving coverage offered to McCain in real time. I wrote about that here, again, back in 2008, and here, two years later. Ive got more, but thats enough for now.)

The third and among the most important meta-media-related factors never to forget in contemporary political reporting is the mass addiction of contemporary conservatives to the practice of bald-faced lying. (Im using the term in its philosophical senses.) This compulsion is evident even among many who profess distaste for Trumps brand of dishonesty. Look, for instance, at this Peggy Noonan column in The Wall Street Journal. In support of her nutty contention that a leak of a Supreme Court draft opinionwhich is not even against the lawis somehow the equivalent of a murderous insurrection designed to overthrow the government of the United States, Noonan argues, Other high court decisions that liberalized the social orderdesegregation of schools, elimination of prayer in the schools, interracial marriage, gay marriagewere followed by public acceptance, even when the rulings were very unpopular. I suppose it is conceivable that Noonana regular not only in the Journal but also on NBC Newss Meet the Pressis so ignorant of history that she is unaware that the case she picks firstdesegregation of schoolswas met with what was proudly called massive resistance in the South up to and including one district in Virginia shutting down its entire public school system rather than comply with the Supreme Courts ruling.

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Now, Noonan may just be nuts. There is certainly evidence to support this view. But she has editors and copy editors and other peopleresearchers, I imaginewho help her produce her columns. Most likely, all of these people have gone to college and are at least minimally familiar with the history of the United States in the second half of the 20th century. So the only explanation for her ridiculous contention is that Peggy feels she has a license to lie. And it doesnt even matter if her readers know she is lying. Thats the beauty of the bald-faced lie. The truth doesnt matter. What matters are the politics and in this case, its a neat combination of racism and anti-feminism tied together by know-nothingism: a pretty good, albeit partial, description of the contemporary Republican Party. (Ive no space to get into personal corruption, for example.)

Ditto the stuff about editors, etc., for this ridiculous Ross Douthat (whom I usually defend) column. As for this comically foolish Andrew Sullivan intervention, well, if youre surprised by it, then bless you, youve been lucky enough to have not been paying attention in the very first place.

But back to the demand for lying. The need to lie is understood to be ingrained in contemporary conservative politics. Thats why they are ecstatic about Musks takeover of Twitter and promise to open it up. You see that in this Times story mentioned above about the Department of Homeland Security. Republican lawmakers are engaging in a collective conniption fit over the appointment of Nina Jankowicz, the author of How to Be a Woman Online, to lead an advisory board at the DHS on the threat of disinformation.

Within hours of the announcement, the paper reports, Republican lawmakers began railing against the board as Orwellian, accusing the Biden administration of creating a Ministry of Truth to police peoples thoughts. Two professors writing an opinion column in The Wall Street Journal noted that the abbreviation for the new Disinformation Governance Board was only one letter off from K.G.B., the Soviet Unions security service.

Let us note, as DHS Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas has done, that this tiny office enjoys no operational authority or capability and that it would not spy on Americans. That doesnt matter. What does matter is, first of all, right-wingers dont like Jankowicz, who, the Times tells us, has suggested in her book and in public statements that condescending and misogynistic content online can prelude violence and other unlawful acts offlinethe kinds of threat the board was created to monitor. She has called for social media companies and law enforcement agencies to take stiffer action against online abuse. But the right-wingers also dont like the idea that the board will monitor disinformation spread by foreign states such as Russia, China and Iran, or other adversaries such as transnational criminal organizations and human smuggling organizations. Republicans love disinformation, especially the kind that comes from Russia and makes its way into Republican presidential campaigns. In fact, they rarely use any other kind.

I guess I need to give a high five to the Times reporters for including this crucial bit of recent historical context. The department joined the F.B.I. in releasing terrorism bulletins warning that falsehoods about the 2020 election and the Capitol riots on Jan. 6, 2021, could embolden domestic extremists. Trump would likely not have been elected president without the 2016 falsehoods, and he and the party he has under his thumb are now hailing those domestic extremists who sought to take over the government and murder his vice president on January 6 (with AIPAC now supporting the Republican congressmen who voted to overturn the election, I cannot help myself from adding).

Republicans know they cannot win without lying. And they know that most of the time, the media will both sides their lies to the point where citizens cannot discern whats true and whats not (to the degree that they are sufficiently engaged with old-fashioned politics even to care). And so Republicans resist all attempts to address the issue, no matter how vulnerable it leaves the rest of us to violent extremists, both from within and without. Its actually amazing to me, as I write these words, the degree to which conservatives have become virtually carbon copies of the enemies that so excited them during the Cold War. I havent watched this crappy movie for a long time, but if it were being made honestly today, it would be called I Was a Republican well, the FBI is not allowed to look into this kind of thing either.

We are really screwed.

I saw two shows recently that ought to give hope to those of us who worry about our ability to keep on keeping on as we find ourselves getting on. One was an 85th birthday celebration for my fellow Upper West Sider and onetime CUNY professor Ron Carter. Credited with having played on 2,200 albums, 60 of which he was the leader on, Carter had a lot of friends join him at Carnegie Hall this past Tuesday. (One might ask, How long has this been going on? since his friends have been honoring him since 1995.) Tuesdays show had three iterations, a trio, a quartet, and an octet, the latter featuring six, count em, upright basses. One interesting thing about this show was learning just how big in Japan Carter is. Hes been given the countrys highest honor and was feted Tuesday night by its ambassador. Heres the trio doing an NPR Tiny Desk Concert.

The previous week, I caught the queen of New York cabaret, Karen Akers, doing her first solo concert at Birdland, where she did a retrospective of her career of songs by the likes of Edith Piaf and Stephen Sondheim for a show she called Water Under the Bridge. Her voice has deepened over the decades and so has her connection to her audience, which could not have responded more enthusiastically. The evening could hardly have felt more intimate or been more moving. Here she is with Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien.

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Altercation: How Republicans Argue: They Lie - The American Prospect

William Barr, Donald Trumps former attorney general, said in an interview on Thursday that it would be a big mistake for the Republican party to nominate Trump for president in 2024.

Appearing on the Newsmax television channel, Barr said Trump, who has hinted that he will run again, would not be a sound choice.

I dont think he should be our nominee the Republican party nominee, Barr said.

And I think Republicans have a big opportunity it would be a big mistake to put him forward.

In a poll in January 57% of Republican voters said they would choose Trump in 2024. Trump also won the less scientific Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll, in February, by a large margin.

Trump, who was impeached twice during his four years in the White House, has repeatedly teased his supporters with suggestions he will run again.

We did it twice, and well do it again, Trump told a crowd at the CPAC convention claiming again that he won the 2020 election.

Were going to be doing it again a third time.

Still, Barrs remarks will be sure to anger Trump, who has repeatedly clashed with his former attorney general since losing the 2020 election.

In Barrs book, One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General, he wrote that Trump had shown he has neither the temperament nor persuasive powers to provide the kind of positive leadership that is needed.

Trump, Barr said, has surrounded himself with sycophants and whack jobs from outside the government, who fed him a steady diet of comforting but unsupported conspiracy theories.

Trump responded by calling Barr slow and lethargic.

When the Radical Left Democrats threatened to Hold him in contempt and even worse, Impeach him, he became virtually worthless to Law and Order and Election Integrity. They broke him just like a trainer breaks a horse.

Trump had previously called Barr a swamp creature and a Rino [Republican in Name Only] afraid, weak and frankly pathetic.

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Barr: it would be 'big mistake' for Republicans to nominate Trump in 2024 - The Guardian US