Tennessee state police form a perimeter to protect a white nationalist gathering from anti-racist protesters. Did I mention this was in a state park?

Police perimeter around the white supremacist conference #AmRen is intense. We heckling them like hell. pic.twitter.com/mMYd8vave9

— Lacy MacAuley (@lacymacauley) April 28, 2018

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Police formed a tight perimeter around a Tennessee state-owned hotel Saturday, guarding a white nationalist conference inside the building from anti-racist protesters gathered outside. 

American Renaissance, a racist Virginia-based organization listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group, reserved the 125 rooms inside Montgomery Bell State Park Inn for the weekend conference. Attendees not staying at the hotel arrived there early Saturday morning. Nearly all of them were men. They wore suit and ties — mandatory dress for the event — and didn’t respond to reporters’ questions as police escorted them inside.

Anti-racist protesters arrived a short time later. State park rangers subjected each protester to a metal detector test before allowing them to enter a fenced-off area across from the hotel. 

One protester, Beth Foster, grew upset when park rangers wouldn’t allow her to bring a purse inside, as bags were prohibited in the protest zone. 

“This is absolutely absurd,” she told the officers. “Nazis” from out of state, she told them, were allowed to rent out an entire Tennessee taxpayer-owned hotel, and yet she wasn’t allowed to bring a tiny purse inside a section of her own state park. Eventually Foster — co-director of the Mercy Junction Justice and Peace Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee — left her purse and walked through the security checkpoint. 

“It’s anti-racist activists that the state sees as the enemies,” she told reporters. “Not the Nazis or the white supremacists who are in our buildings, using our public restrooms, and eating in our public restaurant, plotting genocide.” 

So to be clear the police perimeter was in place BEFORE any protesters even arrived?

So they just assumed they would be violent?

The protesters, many of whom I would assume were also residents of the state, were then not only forbidden to enter the hotel on state park land, but were corralled into a fenced off area like cattle.

And you know this is now a thing, with the Nazis and white supremacists demonstrating real fear about the protesters that show up at their rallies and gatherings, even though most of the violence, and the only death, is attributed to their side.

So much for being the "master race," right?

Study finds that Trump voters were not driven by economic concerns but rather concerns that their dominance as white Christians was being threatened.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

Ever since Donald J. Trump began his improbable political rise, many pundits have credited his appeal among white, Christian and male voters to “economic anxiety.” Hobbled by unemployment and locked out of the recovery, those voters turned out in force to send Mr. Trump, and a message, to Washington. 

Or so that narrative goes. 

A study published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences questions that explanation, the latest to suggest that Trump voters weren’t driven by anger over the past, but rather fear of what may come. White, Christian and male voters, the study suggests, turned to Mr. Trump because they felt their status was at risk. 

“It’s much more of a symbolic threat that people feel,’’ said Diana C. Mutz, the author of the study and a political science and communications professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where she directs the Institute for the Study of Citizens and Politics. “It’s not a threat to their own economic well-being; it’s a threat to their group’s dominance in our country over all.”

There have been other studies that have proven this point as well, and of course  even our own powers of observation should lead us to a similar conclusion.

Trump recognized this ethnic anxiety among white Christians during his time publicly calling for President Obama to reveal his birth certificate.

And that made him a hero to these self entitled white racists.

Then all he had to do was drag Sarah Palin back onto the national stage to give him her seal of approval, and the basket of white supremacist deplorables were all set to do their thing. 

Racism, and fear of "the other," has been a theme uniting these Trump supporters since the very beginning, and it is only a uniting of the more enlightened among us that will defeat them in the upcoming elections.

White Supremacist kicked off Facebook. Well occasionally Facebook gets something right.

Courtesy of Fast Forward:

Facebook is the latest platform to expel white supremacist Richard Spencer. The website has removed three pages that belonged to the white supremacist, the BBC reported. 

Spencer, who is known for popularizing the term “alt-right,” ran the Facebook page of his National Policy Institute think tank, another one promoting his AltRight.com news analysis website, and his personal page. 

At a time when Facebook is under scrutiny for privacy concerns, the social media website is taking action against hate speech. 

Spencer rose to prominence in 2016 when he was filmed celebrating President Trump’s election win by cheering: “Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory,” to an audience who responded with Nazi-like salutes. 

I am all for free speech and all.

But there are some people whose free speech is all about taking freedoms away from other people, and I am less than sympathetic when those individuals lost their rights.

With Paul Ryan announcing his retirement it is smooth sailing for his openly racist former opponent.

Courtesy of Think Progress:

Until early Wednesday morning, Paul Nehlen was little more than a racist, anti-Semitic sideshow in Wisconsin politics. Unless you happen to be a white supremacist, chances are you’ve never heard of him. His political résumé consists of one failed 2016 bid to capture the Republican nomination for a congressional race in Wisconsin, and a favorable shoutout from fellow white supremacist Donald Trump on Twitter. 

Paul Nehlen was not to be taken seriously, until suddenly he became the Republican front-runner to defend the congressional seat currently held by the most powerful Republican in the House of Representatives.

Nehlen’s first primary challenge against Ryan was unremarkable. He made a few headlines by endorsing Trump’s campaign early, something Ryan himself was reluctant to do. Sarah Palin publicly supported Nehlen’s insurgent campaign, but it ultimately did no good: Ryan captured his party’s nomination with almost 85 percent of the vote. 

But after Donald Trump’s inauguration, Nehlen — like so many other virulent white supremacists and neo-Nazis — was emboldened. He began openly embracing classic anti-Semitic rhetoric, sharing deeply offensive memes on Twitter and the online white supremacist clearinghouse Gab. Whatever hesitation he had to publicly share his racist views melted away as well. 

His online behavior finally got him banned from Twitter in February, when he attacked actress Meghan Markle for her biracial genealogy. 

He isn’t without his supporters, though. As he alienated more and more normal Americans, he gained notoriety among the drudgery of the internet. During a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville last year in which a peaceful protester was murdered, Nehlen tweeted messages of support for the rally’s organizers, saying “Incredible moment for white people who’ve had it up to here & aren’t going to take it anymore.” After a white supremacist participant was revealed to be the murderer, Nehlen echoed Donald Trump’s response, blaming bad actors on both sides for the incident. 

Nehlen’s comments earned him favorable coverage by white supremacist media outlets like the podcasts of former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke and crying Nazi Christopher Cantwell, as well as Breitbart, which tried — unsuccessfully — to scrub their fawning coverage of Nehlen.

White supremacist, early Trump supporter, endorsed by Sarah Palin, oh yeah this guy is DEFINITELY going to do well with that 30 to 40% of hard core Trump voters.

Appears to me this could be an easy pickup for the Dems if they play their cards right.

One of the oldest white supremacist sites on the internet is going broke. I know, sad right?

Courtesy of The Daily Beast:  

Stormfront.org has been an internet hate hub since it launched in 1996. Its owner, former Ku Klux Klan leader Don Black, said last week that donations had plummeted and that the site was scaling back operations. But longtime Stormfront posters suggested Black’s wife had been paying the bills, and that she was finally checking out. 

“Our contributions have once again totaled less than $2,000, which is not enough to cover our basic server and radio bills, and this month we no longer have enough personal money to make up the difference,” Black wrote last week in a post first spotted by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The plunge in donations follows a decline in web traffic to the site. 

Though popular with an older generation of KKK members and white supremacists, Stormfront’s outdated design has fallen out of favor with younger neo-Nazis who tend toward sites like the right-wing Twitter clone Gab, and semi-private messaging platforms like Discord. 

So far in 2018, Stormfront has fallen more than 5,000 places in the global ranking of most-viewed websites, according to web traffic tracker Alexa.

I guess it's hard to compete for traffic against the famous white supremacist who now occupies the White House. 

I mean let's face it, if you want more bang for your racist buck you donate to Donald Trump.

Florida teacher who hosted a white supremacist podcast has resigned.

Courtesy of CNN: 

Florida middle school teacher Dayanna Volitich submitted her resignation after it was found she was also the host of a white supremacist podcast called "Unapologetic" and the voice behind a Twitter account riddled with racist and anti-Semitic posts.

Charles E. Moore, Volitich's attorney, had no comment on his client's resignation letter. 

Volitich, 25, taught social studies at Crystal River Middle School in Crystal River, Florida. Online, she went by the pseudonym "Tiana Dalichov." Last month, she confirmed through her attorney that she was the one speaking as Dalichov on the podcast, but said her comments were "political satire and exaggeration" and the persona was a "hobby."

 "None of the statements released about my being a white nationalist or white supremacist have any truth to them, nor are my political beliefs injected into my teaching of social studies curriculum," she said in the statement.

That's funny, that "political satire" and "exaggeration" claim is the same one made by Rush Limbaugh and Alex Jones when their hateful rhetoric was in danger of costing them a job, or custody of their kids. 

The local school district has not yet accepted Volitich's resignation but it is hard to see how they won't, after all even for Florida this is bad publicity. 

For those who did not catch our March post on this terrible person, yow can find it here.

Florida public school teacher had secret life as an online white supremacist provocateur.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Dayanna Volitich, a 25-year-old social studies teacher at Crystal River Middle School in Florida, has been secretly hosting the white nationalist podcast “Unapologetic” under the pseudonym “Tiana Dalichov” and bragging about teaching her views in a public school, HuffPost has discovered. 

In her most recent podcast on Feb. 26, a guest railed against diversity in schools, dismissing the idea that “a kid from Nigeria and a kid who came from Sweden are supposed to learn exactly the same” and have the “same IQ.” Volitich enthusiastically agreed with the guest, and went on to argue that “science” has proven that certain races are smarter than others. 

In the same episode, Volitich boasted about bringing her white nationalist beliefs into the classroom and hiding her ideology from administrators. She said that when parents complained to the school’s principal about how she is injecting political bias into the classroom, Volitich lied to the principal and said it was not true. 

“She believed me and backed off,” she said. 

Volitich also agreed with her guest’s assertion that more white supremacists need to infiltrate public schools and become teachers. “They don’t have to be vocal about their views, but get in there!” her guest said. “Be more covert and just start taking over those places.” 

“Right,” Volitich said. “I’m absolutely one of them.” 

Huffington Post did a pretty admirable job of linking this "Tiana Dalichov" character to public school teacher Dayanna Volitich.

Heavy.com also found where Volitich, as "Tiana Dalichov," criticized the victims of the Florida school shooting, and even confronted them online.

They also featured part of her podcast which leaves no doubt that these two people are one and the same.

Thankfully, partly due to their efforts, she has now been removed from the classroom where she can no longer poison the minds of her students:

“The teacher has been removed from the classroom and the investigation is ongoing. Pursuant to Florida Statute an open investigation and materials related to it are exempt from public record and cannot be discussed until the investigation is complete,” the statement from Citrus County schools said.

Remember how we talked about the election of Donald Trump empowering these cowards and making them feel bold enough to come out of the woodwork?

Well this is yet another example of that very thing.

The NFL officially cuts ties with Papa John's pizza.

Joint statement from NFL & Papa John’s on Papa John’s giving up official pizza sponsorship. pic.twitter.com/KVAW3QNSA1

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) February 27, 2018

Courtesy of The Hill: 

Pizza chain Papa John's will end its sponsorship deal with the NFL next season, after years of being "the official pizza of the NFL." 

The end of the pizza chain's sponsorship comes two months after Papa John's founder and CEO John Schnatter stepped down amid controversy over remarks he made about NFL players' protests during the national anthem hurting the company's business. 

The announcement was reported first by Fox Business Network's Charles Gasparino before being confirmed in an earnings call with the company's investors Tuesday afternoon. 

In a statement to media, the two organizations announced that the business relationship would shift to individual relationships with local NFL teams and personalities.

But don't shed too many tears for papa John's.

After all they are still the preferred pizza of white supremacists.

Of course the worst thing about Papa John's is that it's just shitty pizza.

In my opinion the racists are welcome to it.

White supremacist groups dramatically increase their college campus recruitment.

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

White supremacist groups have stepped up their recruiting on college campuses over the past two years with a sharp increase in their presence and activism in the past year, a period that perfectly overlaps with the political presence and prominence of President Donald Trump, according to a new study released this week by the Anti-Defamation League. 

Calling the spike in hate group behavior “alarming,” the ADL tallied a three-fold increase in propaganda efforts by a variety of hate groups and white nationalist organizations on hundreds of campuses nationwide. “White supremacists, particularly alt right groups, have been actively targeting U.S. college campuses since January 2016,” the report states. “The practice failed to get any real traction until the fall semester of 2016. Since then, propaganda efforts have increased dramatically.” 

The ADL recorded 346 incidents of white supremacist materials — fliers, stickers, banners, posters — littering college and university campuses since September 1, 2016. “These campaigns targeted 216 college campuses, from Ivy League schools to local community colleges, in 44 states and the District of Columbia,” the report said.

Well with a card carrying white supremacist in the White House, of course the racists and alt-right folks are going to come crawling out of the woodwork.

Donald Trump is their guy, and he provides a kind of unspoken permission for the country to slide right back into the days of Jim Crow laws, rampant segregation, and of course the oppression of minorities.

DC Charter School Board senior manager suspended for being a gun toting white supremacist who promotes raping feminists.

Courtesy of Crooks and Liars:

Until today, John Goldman was a Senior Manager of Finance, Analysis and Strategy for the Washington, DC Public Charter School Board. But today Goldman was suspended pending investigation after photos surfaced of him at parties with known neonazis and white supremacists as the pseudonymous "Jack Murphy," self-proclaimed liberal-turned-conservative in the age of Trump. 

"Murphy," it seems, was a foe of Richard Spencer. Still it appears they share some fundamental beliefs, though Murphy/Goldman claims he was a Democrat who now has a man-crush on Trump. Apparently former Democrats can be white supremacist men's rights advocates too! 

John Goldman has now admitted that his online alter ego is "Jack Murphy," but remains unapologetic about his stated beliefs and why he holds them.

By the way here are some of this stated beliefs:  

"Men have a natural tendency towards dominance and women to passivity and submission," Murphy wrote in 2015. "For a feminist who has rejected polarity and embraced sameness, this presents a paradox. The cognitive dissonance between her chosen dogma and the urge to get choked during sex is painful."

This is the argument for his central premise, which is simple: "Rape is the best therapy for the problem. Feminists need rape." 

But he is quick to qualify this by claiming that all feminists need is a man who loves her to rape her but not in a totally evil "illegal alien" rapey way, but a loving rape. Consensual, even.

"Loving, consensual rape" is a new one on me.

But wait, there's more: 

"However, the tragedy of a young girl getting raped in the bathroom at school just might be what turns the attention of limousine liberals from the brainwashing narrative of the Democrats and towards a more sane approach to immigration," "Murphy" wrote in a Medium post last year. 

"Let’s just hope it will only take one, and not an epidemic of heinous crime to finally get those suburban soccer moms out of their denial and into the real world," he continued.

Yeah, anybody else picking up on a rapey theme here?

There is of course more, but this is all I can stomach to post on my blog.

Keep in mind this guy worked for the Washington, DC "school board."

The mind reels.

While we were all enjoying the holidays, the North Carolina KKK was busy with recruitment.

Courtesy of The News and Observer:  

Some Triangle residents found a delivery in their driveways on Christmas Eve that clearly didn’t come from FedEx. 

People in the White Oak area of Garner woke up Sunday morning to plastic bags containing propaganda from the East Coast Knights of the True Invisible Empire, a statewide chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. 

Some of the bags distributed in the Hillandale neighborhood contained flyers that read, “White pride doesn’t mean hate! It’s OK, you can say it! I’m proud to be white! There is no need to feel guilty because of the past!” 

The flyer asks, “Why can’t pro-white rights organizations exist without being labeled racist?” and, “Why are other races in this country allowed these rights, as they SHOULD, but not the folk of European ancestory (sic)?”

The bags also contained business cards, mints and rocks used to weigh them down.

I think the rocks are a nice touch.

You know just in case you wanted to stone any of your neighbors for daring to not be white. 

Apparently if you call the number they ask you to leave a voice message. And I imagine they received some rather colorful recorded messages.

Look there is nothing inherently wrong with being proud of your heritage.

However to call for ethnic pride usually suggests that there was some reason that you were oppressed due to the color of your skin, that is simply not the case when it comes to being a Caucasian.

Instead our pigment has served as a blessing that typically affords us far more opportunities than our darker brothers and sisters.

And to be honest the KKK was NEVER about celebrating whiteness, it was about terrorizing and oppressing those who were not blessed lily white skin.

Neo-Nazi teenager kills his former girlfriend's parents when they convince her to stop seeing him for fear he was attempting to indoctrinate her.

Scott and Buckley Kuhn-Fricker

Courtesy of WaPo: 

Buckley Kuhn-Fricker was so disturbed by what she discovered about her teenage daughter’s boyfriend that she spent a tumultuous week pushing for a breakup. By Thursday, she texted a friend saying the “outspoken Neo Nazi” was out of their lives. 

But just hours later, the family said that the 17-year-old boyfriend had shot and killed Kuhn-Fricker, 43, and her husband, Scott, 48, in their Reston, Va., home. It happened around 5 a.m. Friday, while the couple’s children and relatives were inside. They had gathered to celebrate the Christmas holiday. 

The teen, who shot himself and is in critical condition at a hospital, was charged with two counts of murder Saturday after police spent Friday investigating at the large, single-family home decorated with Christmas wreaths and snowflakes. The Washington Post generally does not name juveniles charged with crimes unless they are charged as adults. The family of the teen, who is from Lorton, declined to comment. 

Fairfax County police would not offer a motive for the double slaying, but family members and friends tied it directly to the couple’s struggle to keep hate out of their home, as one friend put it. They agreed to talk about the efforts because they said it was important to expose what happened.

According to the article the girl's mother found white supremacist tweets on her daughter's phone that she believed came from the boyfriend, that combined with things her daughter had said led her to believe that the young man was trying to convert her to his way of thinking, so she contacted their private school to let them know what was going on as well. 

She also contacted the young man's parents. 

The police told the grandmother that the parents caught the young man in their daughter's bedroom early Friday morning, and after telling him to get out he shot and killed them both, before turning the gun on himself.

This is a terrible tragedy, and sadly we may see more like it now that Donald Trump has empowered these Neo-Nazis and Whites Supremacists, and inspired them to openly talk about their beliefs and attempt to recruit others.

The CEO and founder of Papa John's Pizza has been fired months after publicly criticizing NFL players for kneeling during national anthem.

Courtesy of WDRB: 

Papa John's says its founder John Schnatter will step down as CEO next month, about two months after he publicly criticized the NFL leadership over national anthem protests by football players. 

The company said Thursday that Schnatter remains chairman but will be replaced as chief executive by Chief Operating Officer Steve Ritchie on Jan. 1. 

Schnatter had blamed slowing sales growth on the outcry surrounding NFL players kneeling during the national anthem. Papa John's International Inc. is an NFL sponsor and advertiser. Schnatter also said at the time that customers had a negative view of the chain's association with the NFL. 

The comments drew praise from white supremacists and the company apologized two weeks later.

So I guess we can assume that Papa John's was not terribly pleased with their new designation as the white supremacist's pizza of choice? 

Gee, what a shame.

I have to say that I NEVER liked this Schnatter dude, even before he let his racist flag fly.

I'm also going to say that I am never eating that shitty pizza.

Even if they aren't racist POS, they still make crappy pizza.

Five people indicted for crimes they committed during the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville. One indictment is for first degree murder.

James Alex Fields, charged with murdering Heather Heyer.

Courtesy of the Daily Progress:  

A grand jury has indicted five men on charges stemming from the failed Aug. 12 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. 

On Monday evening, the grand jury indicted James Alex Fields Jr. on all 10 charges he faces in the car attack that killed Heather Heyer, including first-degree murder.

Fields faces a penalty of 20 years to life in prison on the murder charge. In a preliminary hearing Thursday, prosecutors upgraded his second-degree murder charge to first-degree. 

General District Judge Robert H. Downer Jr., also certified charges against Alex Ramos, Jacob Goodwin and Richard Preston on Monday. Another judge had already certified a charge against Daniel Borden. 

Borden, Ramos and Goodwin were all indicted by a grand jury on charges stemming from the Market Street Garage beating of DeAndre Harris, of Suffolk. 

Preston was indicted on a charge of firing a weapon near a school.

You may remember that this is the rally of which Donald Trump claimed that there were "good people" on both sides.

Well it appears that these "good people" may be headed to prison. 

You know it continues to irritate me that the conservatives were essentially calling for a lynch mob to go after the undocumented immigrant who accidentally killed Kate Stenle with a gun, but seem completely undisturbed by a guy who killed Heather Heyer after purposefully driving his car into a crowd of people.

Former Canadian skinhead says that Donald Trump has "normalized" white supremacy.

Courtesy of The Star: 

“I don’t know if you’re a Trump fan,” Galloway says, as I nearly fall out of my chair. “But the guy down south there is enabling this stuff, I believe, by allowing it to be normalized.” 

Galloway believes many prejudiced eyes see Trump as both a modern day prophet and a warrior who is fighting for the white side. Trump has more dog whistles than you’d find inside the Westminster Kennel Club. 

In rhetoric and by tweet, Galloway thinks Trump is making hate great again. “The movement is growing because of the normalized message coming from the United States,” he says. “It’s so often that people are latching on to this.” 

This is from a new documentary called "Skinhead" which will be broadcast tomorrow on Canadian television.

And Canada is not the only place where the number of white supremacists have started to rise.

Courtesy of CNN:

Millions of Americans are shocked by the recent displays of white supremacy on US soil. But it's not just America that is seeing these types of demonstrations. 

This Saturday, an estimated 60,000 people marched through Warsaw on Poland's independence day, with some of the marchers burning flares and carrying banners that read "White Europe" and "Clean Blood." Far-right symbols from the darkest corners of European white supremacy were proudly worn. One marcher said in a television interview that his goal was to "remove Jewry from power." To be clear, Polish leaders afterward said they condemned the hateful messages and stressed many thousands were there to celebrate the country's holiday. 

Images from Warsaw immediately bring to mind this summer's deadly rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia, and for good reason: A thread of anguish and hatred connects white supremacists across the Atlantic with the ones in America. Indeed, one of the most underreported stories of Charlottesville is that Richard Spencer, David Duke, and Matthew Heimbach -- three prominent rally organizers -- have all been involved with European white nationalist individuals or organizations.

I don't think any of us are even remotely surprised that Donald Trump is helping the spread of white supremacy here in America, but to find that the same is happening not just in Canada, but around the world as well, is more than a little unsettling.

I still remember when America was considered a beacon for hope around the world.

And now suddenly the man that occupies our highest office is considered an inspiration for hatred, racism, and religious intolerance.

Papa John's is now the "official" white supremacist pizza. You know, just in case all that cross burning gives you the munchies.

Courtesy of Newsweek: 

Neo-Nazis and white supremacists have always been distasteful, but now it turns out their taste in pizza is terrible, too. 

The white supremacist website the Daily Stormer announced Thursday that Papa John’s pizza is the official pie of the alt-right, posting a picture of a pizza with a swastika fashioned from pepperoni slices. The caption reads, "Papa John: Official pizza of the alt-right?"

The pronouncement came after Papa John’s CEO John Schnatter, whose pizza is an official NFL sponsor, blamed his company’s recent losses on NFL players protesting police brutality during the national anthem. 

Schnatter was widely accused of racism and of making bad pizza. But white supremacists came to his defense. 

“This might be the first time ever in modern history that a major institution is going to be completely destroyed explicitly because of public outrage over their anti-white agenda,” Daily Stormer writer Adrian Sol posted, referring to the NFL and adding disturbingly, “The Negro fatigue caused by this whole NFL fiasco is reaching heights that even I didn’t fully expect.”

Uh...okay.

 By the way after Schnatter made his remarks about the NFL protests hurting pizza sales he was trolled pretty hard by other pizza outlets.

Papa John's CEO is blaming poor sales on the NFL. Other pizza brands aren't having it. pic.twitter.com/CzGau6O9L9

— AJ+ (@ajplus) November 4, 2017

So just remember, if you support white supremacy Papa John's Pizza is your go to racist food provider.

However if you are a reasonable person, who just wants a tasty slice, then just about every place else in the country is significantly better.

Robert Mercer, huge supporter of Donald Trump, and the man who bankrolls Breitbart, taps out.

Courtesy of Buzzfeed: 

Robert Mercer, the hedge fund billionaire who has come under media scrutiny for his role in helping elect Donald Trump, announced today he would step down from his role as co-CEO of Renaissance Technologies. The decision, announced in a memo to Renaissance employees, followed a BuzzFeed News exposé revealing the connections of Breitbart — partially owned by Mercer — to white nationalists and neo-Nazis. 

Sources familiar with Renaissance informed BuzzFeed News in recent days of significant anger within the company about the report, which revealed that former Breitbart tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos had cultivated white nationalists and used them to generate ideas and help edit stories on the site. 

Mercer's statement specifically denounces Yiannopoulos and states that "I was mistaken to have supported him, and for several weeks have been in the process of severing all ties with him." He also announced his intention to sell his stake in Breitbart to his daughters. 

Mercer was a major funder of Donald Trump's presidential effort.

That BuzzFeed expose was a huge hit, but there may be other contributing factors as well.

Another old story that gained little traction at the time Nazi-lover, Trump funder, Bannon buddy Robert Mercer owes IRS 7 BILLION DOLLARS. https://t.co/BHedMWfwXP

— Candy A Liberal (@candyasslib) November 2, 2017

Damn! I cannot even imagine HAVING seven billion dollars much less OWING seven billion dollars.

Bob Mercer selling stake in Breitbart won't reduce his legal exposure over owning Cambridge Analytica, likely central to the Mueller probe

— Adam Blickstein (@AdamBlickstein) November 2, 2017

That's right, there is an ever increasing possibility that Robert Mercer will be called in to testify before the Mueller investigation, assuming that it has not already happened.

So to be clear, with Mercer's daughter taking over there will still be money flowing to Steven Bannon and Breitbart, but this is still a huge hit to the conservative media, and certainly sends a signal to Donald Trump that NOBODY is safe regardless of their wealth and power. 

(H/T to Crooks and Liars.)

The Alt-Right are using NATO and British Intelligence psychological warfare techniques to spread white nationalism. Well isn't that special.

Courtesy of Newsweek: 

Far right groups under the banner of the so-called 'alt right' are using psychological warfare techniques learnt from leaked NATO and British intelligence documents to spread white supremacism across the world, according to a new report. 

In a study by the the Institute of Strategic Dialogue—titled 'The Fringe Insurgency'—Julia Ebner and Jacob Davey argue that activists are "weaponising internet culture" to spread their ideology online and subvert democracies. 

After spending several weeks undercover on online alt-right forums, the authors identified the tactics that users adopted to radicalize people online and mobilize support for the far-right groups, targeting anxieties over immigration, terrorism, and race.

They used “crowd-funding platforms, custom-made social media platforms and even the use of leaked military and intelligence resources from [U.K. intelligence agency] GCHQ and NATO to run campaigns against their own governments,” the report said. 

The study identified these tactics as originating in America and then being transported to European counties to disrupt their democratic elections and incite hatred and even violence.

The article did not mention it but I would be interested in how this relates to the Russian government's attempts to undermine western democracy or if in fact they are working hand in glove. 

Former Neo-Nazi disavows movement, comes out as gay and Jewish. Wait, what?

Courtesy of Channel 4: 

A white supremacist active as recently as the start of this year says today he is publicly renouncing 40 years of hate. Speaking on Channel 4 News he comes out as gay for the first time – and admits to a violent past.

After a lifetime of involvement with the far-right Kevin Wilshaw announces on Channel 4 News that he is leaving the movement – at the same time publicly coming out as gay. 

The well known National Front organiser in the 1980s was still active in white supremacist groups earlier this year – including speaking at events. 

But tonight on Channel 4 News he explains for the very first time why he is publicly disavowing the movement – sharing his secrets, explaining how he was both a Neo-Nazi and of Jewish heritage , while admitting to violent acts and what motivated his hatred.

During the interview Wilshaw says that he became interested in the white supremacist movement because he had no friends and wanted to be part of something.

I think this guy could be the poster boy for joining an organization that is diametrically opposed to your self interests.

He's like a black Republican, only even worse.

Wilshaw said that while he witnessed violence toward minorities and others it did not impact him until it was directed at him.

I am going to guess that empathy is not high on his list of attributes.

The White Supremacists return to Charlottesville because...well because Donald Trump is still president isn't he?

White nationalists now chanting - “We will be back”. About 3 dozen supporters in Emancipation Park. Plenty of police on standby in park. pic.twitter.com/LuJEsAgxQy

— Matt Talhelm (@MattTalhelm) October 7, 2017

Courtesy of WaPo: 

Richard Spencer, who in August led white nationalists and white supremacists in a torchlight march across the University of Virginia campus that touched off a weekend of deadly clashes, returned Saturday night to Charlottesville. 

Spencer, a white nationalist, posted video on social media of followers carrying torches to the statue of Robert E. Lee, which the city has sought to remove.

The march coincided with the university’s celebration of its bicentennial. 

“It was a planned flash mob,” Spencer said in an interview Saturday night. “It was a great success. We’ve been planning this for a long time.” 

“We wanted to prove that we came in peace in May, we came in peace in August, and we come again in peace,” he said. 

Their message, he said, is that, “Our identity matters. We are not going to stand by and allow people to tear down these symbols of our history and our people – and we’re going to do this again.”

Actually they are going to stand by while these symbols of hatred are torn down, because showing up with Tiki torches and Nazi armbands does nothing to stop them.

As for demonstrating again, I am sure they will.

However now they are too afraid to come out en masse and are only doing these quiet little flash mobs, and then fleeing the area before the big bad counter protesters show up and make them piss themselves.

No, despite having a sympathizer in the White House it is clear that the White Supremacist time is passed, and Americans will no longer cower in fear at their presence.