FirstCircle

Jeff Sharlet has spent two decades covering the intersection of extreme Christian nationalism and the far-right. In his new book, Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War, he gives snapshots of a country rapidly devolving into a Christian fascism state. He captures the rage, the despair, the dislocation, the alienation, the aesthetic of violence, and the magical thinking that are the foundations of all fascist movements—forces that are now coalescing around the Trump-led Republican Party. The bizarre conspiracy theories and buffoonish quality of many who lead and embrace this movement, such as Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert, make the use American fascists easy to ridicule and dismiss. But Sharlet implores us to take them seriously as an existential threat to what is left of our anemic democracy. Jeff Sharlet joins The Chris Hedges Report to discuss his new book and the rising tide of Christofascism threatening our democracy.

Video: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=JtrkSeTOv7g

[PBS video]

Stuart Stevens has spent the majority of his decades-long career getting Republicans elected to political office. But his latest book is a warning to the country about the current state of the GOP and its threat to America’s democracy. Amna Nawas spoke with Stevens about the book titled, "The Conspiracy to End America: Five Ways My Old Party Is Driving Our Democracy to Autocracy."

Nearly a quarter of Americans (23%) agree that "because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country," according to the survey. This is up from 15% in 2021.

In a statement, PRRI researchers say they have asked about this in "eight separate surveys since March 2021." They said that "this is the first time support for political violence has peaked above 20%" in their survey results.

While Americans across the political spectrum feel democracy is at risk next year, support for political violence runs mostly along party lines.

Currently one-third of Republicans support violence as a means to save the country, compared with 22% of independents and 13% of Democrats, the survey found. More specifically, Republicans who have favorable views of Donald Trump were found to be "nearly three times as likely as Republicans who have unfavorable views of Trump" to support political violence.

Compared to past surveys, researchers also found an uptick in support for conspiracy theories among Americans — specifically QAnon. According to PRRI, there has been a significant increase in "QAnon believers (from 14% to 23%)," as well as a "a decrease in QAnon rejecters," since 2021. However, Republicans are still twice as likely as Democrats to agree with the core beliefs of the QAnon conspiracy theory.

Donald Trump gave another cognitively impaired, unhinged speech to a small gathering in New Hampshire today after signing paperwork to officially enter their primary.

Trump claimed that the leader of Hungary Victor Orban was in charge of Turkey, forgot the reason why FDR was in a wheelchair, compared himself to Nelson Mandela, said he would ban people from entering the country who disagreed with Christianity, he then mused about what he wants to do to President Biden...

A 39-year-old rock climber is facing a slate of attempted murder charges over an alleged plot to kill random people at a Smith Rock climbing event this weekend.

The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office arrested Samson Zebturiah Garner on Thursday and took him to the county jail on several charges each of attempted murder of multiple victims, attempted first degree assault, attempted second degree assault and unlawful use of a weapon.

Law enforcement recovered a Beretta 9mm handgun, a Sig Sauer 9mm handgun and an AR-15 from Garner when he was arrested. The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office seized those weapons under an extreme risk protection order during the arrest, meaning the courts will take those guns away for at least a year.

A person gathering signatures for a petition Thursday at Eastern Washington University started arguing with students and using racial slurs before threatening to fight students and shoot them, according to EWU police.

The incident started at 1:50 p.m. at the front steps of the Pence Union Building, police said in an email to students and staff. The email said the male gathering signatures started arguing with some students and threatened to come back with friends and shoot them.

"Put to silence", "exposed and struck down". In other words, doxxed and murdered. Just par for the course with the Christianity that I know and loathe.

"Christo-Trumpism" ... that's a new term to me, gonna have to remember it - it's accurate and descriptive.

At today's Trump rally in Waterloo, Iowa, Pastor Joshua Graber from the Cornerstone Baptist Church in Vinton, IA, came out with his prayer which largely involved asking God to intervene to help Donald Trump defeat his enemies. Not something I have been able to find in my Bible, but this is christo-Trumpism.

"We pray that you will impart wisdom to our president as he goes forth to stand in our place. We ask that those who stand against him be put to silence. That those horrendous actions against him and his family be exposed and struck down..."

Attorneys who've been defending MyPillow chief executive and election denier Mike Lindell against defamation lawsuits by voting machine companies are seeking court permission to quit, saying he owes them unspecified millions of dollars and can't pay the millions more that he'll owe in legal expenses going forward.

It’s the latest in a string of legal and financial setbacks for Lindell, who propagates former President Donald Trump’s lies that the 2020 election was stolen from him, in part by rigged voting machine systems. Several big-box retailers, including Walmart, have discontinued his products.

“MyPillow's been decimated. ... We've lost hundreds of millions of dollars,” Lindell said, adding that the other main assets he has left are his home and pickup truck. He blamed Dominion, Smartmatic and the news media, including the conservative outlets Fox News and Newsmax.

Hilton = cop, Hinton = victim

the deputy yanked Hinton out of his car by his legs and hit him multiple times while ripping his shirt and knocking out his false teeth. The violent arrest left Hinton with eight broken ribs, a punctured lung, severe concussion, shoulder injury and a disfigured lip, according to attorneys he hired

He was so beat up that jailers refused to book him and instead sent him to the hospital, Hinton’s attorneys said.

Police recommended charges against Hinton for resisting arrest and obstructing a law enforcement officer. When Note brought video of Hinton’s encounter to the attention of prosecutors, they promptly dropped the case.

Eventually, Hinton is handcuffed as other deputies arrive at the scene. He can be seen bleeding with a ripped shirt sitting on the ground handcuffed while at least a handful of deputies mill about.

Hilton turned off the audio of his body camera for a few minutes while talking with other deputies, who also turned off the audio of their body cameras.

Spokane County Deputies are required to have their body cameras activated, including with audio, when in contact with civilians.

Medics were called to the scene but cleared Hinton to be booked into the Spokane County Jail, according to Note. However, jail staff refused to book Hinton and he was instead taken to an area hospital, Note said.

Hinton stayed three nights in the hospital, where his upper lip had to be stitched. Three of his ribs had separated from his sternum and his concussion was severe, Note said.

"Fearing" = a local judge who's had problems with this same cop in the past.

“Deputy Clay Hilton’s conduct since the issuance of the decision in State v. Vaile suggests that he works as a law enforcement officer not to serve others and benefit the Spokane community, but to intimidate and dominate,” Fearing wrote. “I hold no ill will toward Deputy Hilton, but have concern about his anger, inability to reflect on his behavior, and insistence on retaliation. I lack confidence in his credibility.”

“When that number of officers show up and show that little interest in someone who’s been beaten nearly to the point where they have died and have had to be hospitalized for multiple days, that’s concerning to me,” Maurer said. “And that’s at least indicative that there may be a cultural problem within that department.”

"may be" ???

Just another day in Idaho. Feel free to send your kids (preferably girls of course) to ID and into the hands of companies like this, for a heapin' helpin' of abuse. Society and state gov't there will be happy to look the other way, as long as there's profit to be made.

One girl was raped by a staff member. Others were attacked, molested or berated. Girls fought and sexually assaulted each other, with one being continually called racial slurs and harassed because of her race. Several chewed and swallowed shards of glass as if they were ice and had to be hospitalized. Others attempted suicide again and again.

The staff who spent the most time with the girls had little to no experience working with kids and were paid less than $15 an hour, former employees said. For years, they didn’t have the mandated training to handle children who were a threat to themselves or others, state records show. Nor did they have proper training on child abuse and neglect protocols.

Police were there frequently breaking up fights, returning runaways or putting on handcuffs because staff couldn’t handle dangerous situations on their own. From 2017 to 2022, Post Falls police were called by Cornerstone Cottage 321 times, just over once a week on average, call logs show. It’s a significant number considering Cornerstone’s relatively small size — with only 16 beds — compared to other Idaho facilities. Boise Girls Academy, for comparison, has averaged 1.3 police calls per week since 2018, records show, but its capacity is three times that of Cornerstone.

The "Shea" mentioned here is the most foul Christofascist the PNW has to offer. The Spokane mayor, Woodward, is in tight with him (and Republican C. McMorris-Rodgers, and of course Trump) though being a little more discreet these days after catching general hell for attending one of his wingnut moneymaking events.

Ginny Applington's testimony Monday night would have felt at home spoken in front of any number of evangelical congregations. “In the body of Christ,” she said, “we pray for all of our leaders. We pray for all of humanity. We pray against biblical sin and repent for our own.”

But Applington wasn't at church. She was speaking in front of the Spokane City Council, and quickly into her 2-minute turn during open comments, those comments grew ominous.

"Darkness is about to fall," said Applington. “God is taking back Spokane and He is taking back all the nations. … God is raising up the church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against Him.”

Applington was one of at least eight people who spoke during the council’s open comment period to protest a proposed resolution to censure Mayor Nadine Woodward for her appearance at a Christian nationalist concert, where she accepted a prayer from the fiery local pastor Matt Shea.

Not everyone who spoke Monday night identified as a Christian, but those who opposed the censure resolution echoed similar sentiments, believing the proposed censure – which the council has discussed in committee but has not voted on – wasn’t just about Woodward. It was a step down a slippery slope toward the widespread persecution of the Christian faithful.

"If the city council wants to stop her from doing that, do they want to silence all Christians?" Rebecca Murakami told RANGE just before the meeting. “What is the plan behind that? One thing leads to the next.” Murakami is a member of On Fire Ministries, the church far-right former legislator Matt Shea, who prayed for Woodward at the concert, founded in 2021. Applington is as well.

$16K, that will sure teach 'em.

Vetter, 27, died due to a formwork collapse, according to the Spokane County Medical Examiner. Formwork is a mold used to form concrete.

"My daughter was obsessive compulsive about safety,” Vetter’s father, Laveron Vetter, said. “The union is just safety, safety, safety. And for her to fall just crushes me. Just how could that possibly happen?”

L&I found SAK Builders had three serious violations at the construction site.

The flipper deck, a working platform for employees doing formwork, was not sized correctly for the cores it was used in, according to the citation notice from L&I.

Employees worked on unstable surfaces that weren’t constructed in a way that would allow the flipper deck to meet the manufacturer’s maximum offset requirements, according to L&I.

SAK Builders did not ensure the required safeguards and safety devices for the flipper deck were installed and used correctly, L&I found.

Specifically, the secondary safety pins for the toggle locks were not installed and the pocket formers which help support the flipper deck were not left in place as required by the manufacturer.

SAK Builders did not ensure that the employees installing the flipper deck had access to the manufacturer’s safety documentation for the correct use and installation of the platform at all times.