Opinion

Nowadays, the month of June is notable to most Americans not just for the hot weather, swimming pools, and explosion of summer produce, but also for the cheerful displays of rainbows everywhere to honor Pride. While there's plenty of criticism to be had about the corporate-ization of Pride, what is also true is that, for right-wing bigots who still refuse to accept LGBTQ identities, the ubiquitous, normalizing presence of the rainbow flag during this month chaps their hides. Unfortunately, that means right-wing propagandists and Republicans see an opportunity to use Pride month to pander directly to the worst people in our society, turning up the trolling and harassment of LGBTQ people during a moment of celebration.

On Monday, the biggest Republican troll in Congress, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, announced a right-wing grifter team-up with Milo Yiannopoulos, who she is hiring as an "intern," even though he is a married, nearly middle-aged man who hasn't attended college in over a decade. Yiannopoulos was doing fairly well for himself a few years ago by being a full-time troll until a video resurfaced in 2017 of the right-wing provocateur praising a Catholic priest for molesting him as a boy. He then spent years struggling after losing the right's financial support. He eventually caved and rebranded himself as an "ex-gay" and a champion of a fascist form of Catholicism.

It’s time to talk about what an American fascist government would look like. The word “fascism” gets thrown around a lot, but most Americans have no idea what it would look like or how it would actually play out.

It’s critical to lay out what a fascist America would look like now because this is what is being envisioned right now by many in the Republican Party, and it might come to pass.

Former Trump advisor and self-proclaimed J6 coup plotter Peter Navarro has been indicted for contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the J6 committee. Navarro faces two counts of contempt, each punishable by a year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

This is big news. It’s an indictment of someone in Trump’s inner circle who has already admitted to trying to overturn the election.

This above picture is going around social media. I don’t know about its source. I don’t know about its authenticity. But given our history, it rings true to me. There are people in this country who have no use for liberal democracy, as liberal democracy subverts the natural order of things by which women submit to the authority of their husbands.

In a couple of weeks, the United States will "celebrate" one of the most shameful political events in its history: the 50th anniversary of Watergate.

The infamous break-in started out as what the Nixon White House dismissively called a "third rate burglary," but over the course of the following two years an incredible story of crude criminality, corruption, and even possible treason unfolded before the public, resulting in dozens of jail sentences and the only presidential resignation in American history. It may seem odd to commemorate such a notorious event but it could not be more relevant to our modern times.

In September 2020, a dark-money group called the Rule of Law Defense Fund convened a meeting in Atlanta of staffers from the fund's corporate sibling, the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA). Their purpose was to run "war games," to be ready in the event Donald Trump lost reelection in November. A little over three months later, the same group would help to assemble the mob before the White House on Jan. 6, 2021.

This wasn't an isolated incident. Shadowy preparations like these began long before the violence of Jan. 6. As the House Select Committee investigating those events begins hearings this week, we may learn much more about those preparations and the people behind them.

Hate propagated on social media and other online spaces has grown exponentially in the past couple of years, driven to a significant degree by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The occupation of Ottawa earlier this year by the so-called “freedom convoy” also exposed an increasingly worrisome relationship between online and offline environments.

Recent tragic mass shootings are drawing attention (again) to a lot of societal problems we could fix if we wanted to but instead prioritize white supremacy, sexism, and gun culture.

Last week, I wrote about the radicalization of young men and the way gun manufacturers prey on this to sell guns to men under 21. Mass shootings have become so common I had cause to write an article explaining the link between domestic violence and mass shootings a year ago. The police response to the Uvalde tragedy is drawing attention to a newer conversation – without gun-law reform or better domestic violence response, can’t we at least rely on police to serve and protect?

So who, what, why and how is an "evangelical"? I often forget after all my years of growing up in the church, going to an evangelical seminary and my work in ministry, that many or perhaps most Americans have little knowledge and understanding of the evangelical movement, the Christian faith and how it all connects to American culture and American politics. I would say that most Americans are frustrated at the disproportionate influence and political power that evangelical Christians hold. For some the frustration is more personal because of how they've been treated by the church types. Either way, this mysterious species — the evangelicals — seem to be a major problem in American society. As a trained evangelical, and an ordained minister, I would have to say I completely agree.

This article first appeared in Salon.

The president spoke last night about the valley of the shadow of death in which the massacre of innocents recurs over and over. It was an especially graphic speech. At one point, Joe Biden informed viewers that parents of victims had to give authorities DNA samples for the purpose of identifying their kids. They were literally shot to pieces.

It was graphic for a reason, I think. Biden wanted to move Americans emotionally – to get us to think about the costs of freedom as much as freedom itself. If a majority of us conclude the costs supersede the principle, perhaps the most intransigent of Senate Democrats would support a carve-out of the Senate filibuster to pass gun-law reforms.

During his Thursday night address to the country following a staggering series of mass shootings across the country, President Joe Biden mostly focused his attention on the need for better gun laws. But — likely due to the fact that Republicans will block even the mildest of restrictions on gun access — Biden did toss a bone in the direction of the mental health discussion.

"There's a serious youth mental health crisis in this country," he noted, pointing out that he already proposed legislation that would "provide more school counselors, more school nurses, more mental health services for students." (He's referring to his Build Back Better plan that was killed by Republicans, with the assistance of Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.) Republicans love to talk up "mental health" after mass shootings, but, as most everyone understands, they don't mean it. It's just a deflection from talking about gun control, because they know full well their radical "guns everywhere" views aren't exactly popular with the public. In the real world, as often as they can.

In 1994, Congress enacted a ban on assault weapons that stayed in force for 10 years. It was allowed to sunset in 2005 thanks to Republican control of the federal government and the influence of the National Rifle Association (NRA).

Here’s an underrated detail about the ban that ought to resonate today in America: It worked.

On May 2, 1967, the destinies of Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, and Ronald Reagan collided. The day saved untold thousands of lives.

At the time, California was an open-carry state with few gun restrictions. Governor Reagan was on the steps of the State Capitol to meet and share lunch with a group of visiting 8th graders when Newton, Seale, and nearly 30 other Black Panthers pulled up out front in a small caravan of cars.