Hannah Beier/Reuters
The US supreme court’s upcoming decision to reverse Roe v Wade (an early draft of which was leaked last week) doesn’t ban abortions; it leaves the issue to the states. As a result, it will put another large brick in the growing wall separating blue and red America.
The second American civil war is already occurring, but it is less of a war than a kind of benign separation analogous to unhappily married people who don’t want to go through the trauma of a formal divorce.
One America is largely urban, racially and ethnically diverse, and young. The other is largely rural or exurban, white and older…
Surveys show Americans find it increasingly important to live around people who share their political values. Animosity toward those in the opposing party is higher than at any time in living memory. Forty-two per cent of registered voters believe Americans in the other party are “downright evil”.
Increasingly, each America is running under different laws…
“States rights” was always a cover for segregation and harsh discrimination. The poor – both white and people of color – are already especially burdened by anti-abortion legislation because they can’t afford travel to a blue state to get an abortion.
They’re also hurt by the failure of red states to expand Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act; by red state de facto segregation in public schools; and by red state measures to suppress votes.
“What is to be done?” is the question waiting for an answer. Not for the first time in any nation; not even the first time in this one. But, a non-violent solution is to be preferred. That doesn’t include “States’ Rights”.
Eideard 
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Scrutiny of Republicans who embrace ‘great replacement theory’ after Buffalo massacre
Extremist ideology has found favor with media figures like Tucker Carlson and also with elected politicians and others seeking office https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/16/buffalo-massacre-great-replacement-theory-republicans
“A Pennsylvania Lawmaker and the Resurgence of Christian Nationalism : How Doug Mastriano’s rise embodies the spread of a movement centered on the belief that God intended America to be a Christian nation.” https://www.newyorker.com/news/on-religion/a-pennsylvania-lawmaker-and-the-resurgence-of-christian-nationalism
The Department of Homeland Security intelligence branch is warning law enforcement, first responders and private sector partners nationwide Friday of potential domestic violence extremist activity in response to the Supreme Court’s decision on abortion, according to a memo obtained by CNN.
The memo from the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis says federal and state government officials, including judges, “probably are most at risk for violence in response to the decision.” https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/24/politics/dhs-warning-abortion-ruling/index.html
Includes link to DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis memo “Domestic Violent Extremist Activity Likely in Response to US Supreme Court Decision on Abortion”
“Could This Be an Antebellum Age?
Political manners seem to be growing subservient to the threat of violence. It feels like the 1850s.” (Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal) https://www.wsj.com/articles/political-violence-jan-6-capitol-hill-riot-2020-summer-rioting-looting-kavanaugh-assassin-abortion-guns-civil-war-11655997537
“We’re Already in a Civil War” https://www.dcreport.org/2022/07/04/were-already-in-a-civil-war/
7AM MDT, tomorrow morning, 5th
“Election officials fear copycat attacks as ‘insider threats’ loom : Attempted election security breaches aided by local officials are on the rise.” https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/13/election-fraud-local-states-00045444
“Women secretaries of state face threats and harassment for battling election lies” https://19thnews.org/2022/06/election-lies-threats-harassment-women-secretaries-of-state/
“As Long As I Count the Votes, What Are You Going To Do About It?” https://quoteinvestigator.com/2021/01/28/count-votes/
“We Can’t Save Democracy Just by Voting : In a country as fundamentally hostile to democracy as ours, limiting it to the political sphere makes little sense.” https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5vg5x/we-cant-save-democracy-just-by-voting
Green Berets of the First Special Forces Group (Airborne) are reportedly being looked at with more scrutiny by Military Police for potential ties to “extremist activity” https://warisboring.com/trust-but-verify-green-berets-reportedly-being-targeted-by-i-corps-for-potential-ties-to-extremist-activity/
“…The current administration’s focus on what it deems to be extremist activity has caused strain among many active duty and reserve component personnel, with other issues ranging from vaccine mandates, refusals to sign waivers for those who refuse on religious/medical grounds and the hyperfocus on transgender troops.
As the US Army struggles to retain troops and recruit more, the alienation of many of its troops is proving to be a retention thorn in the side, with some training slideshows lumping right-leaning Soldiers and those with interests in the Constitution in the same camp as the so-called “insurrectionists’ of January 6, 2021.
I CORPS and 1st SFG were not immediately available for comment.”
“Eight former secretaries of Defense and five former chairs of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Tuesday penned an open letter on best practices for “healthy” civil-military relations amid what they called today’s “extremely adverse” political environment.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/06/defense-leaders-civil-military-relations-adverse-political-climate-00054918
Peter Feaver, a political science and public policy professor at Duke University who helped the former officials draft the letter, told POLITICO that the missive was the result of an interest by [former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff] Martin Dempsey in laying out for the public what good civilian-military relations and effective civilian control should look like.
Feaver said there was rapid consensus from the former officials on the importance of writing the letter. He added that the process of putting it together was lengthy, as the officials didn’t want to “misstate something or come across as partisan.”
“In this polarized environment you hear people making comments about a civil war and questions about armed insurrections and things like that — well that’s now straying into military matters. And so a proper understanding of civilian control in that climate seems to be a little more urgent than earlier days that were less fraught and where a majority of folks could be ignorant on the topic and it didn’t matter,” Feaver said. “The letter is really responding to the prominence that civil military questions has taken in the political discourse.”
“Burn and Rave at Close of Day”: The New MAGA Military and Steve Bannon’s Hundred-Year Reich https://washingtonspectator.org/maga-military/
In this article, the second in his two-part series for the Spectator on the far right and the military, George Black examines the emergence of a new movement of far-right MAGA veterans and the scope of their political ambitions. His earlier piece focused on the right-wing assault on the “woke military” and its potential to shape the response of the institutional military to any future January 6th-style crises (see George Black, “The Enemy Within: Behind the Right-Wing Attack on the ‘Woke Military,” Washington Spectator, July-August 2022).
“Why I’ve stopped fearing America is headed for civil war” By Thomas E. Ricks (Washington Post 9/5/22) https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/05/why-ive-stopped-fearing-america-is-headed-civil-war/
#1 New York Times bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas E. Ricks’s latest book, “Waging a Good War: A Military History of the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1968,” (Farrar, Straus & Giroux 9/4/22) “offers a new take on the Civil Rights Movement, stressing its unexpected use of military strategy and its lessons for nonviolent resistance around the world.”
Former President Donald Trump said Thursday the nation would face “problems … the likes of which perhaps we’ve never seen” if he is indicted over his handling of classified documents after leaving office, an apparent suggestion that such a move by the Justice Department could spark violence from Trump’s supporters.
The former president said an indictment wouldn’t stop him from running for the White House again and repeatedly said Americans “would not stand” for his prosecution. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/15/trump-warns-of-problems-like-weve-never-seen-if-hes-indicted-00056911
It’s not the first time Republicans have hinted at potential civil unrest if the DOJ indicts Trump. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham made headlines last month when he said there would be “riots in the street” if “there is a prosecution of Donald Trump for mishandling classified information.”
When conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt asked the FPOTUS how he would respond when the “legacy media” accuses him of inciting violence he replied “That’s not inciting. I’m just saying what my opinion is, I don’t think the people of this country would stand for it.”
7AM MDT, tomorrow morning, 16th
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene deceptively claimed at a rally for former President Donald Trump in Warren, Michigan, on Saturday that Democrats are murdering Republicans.
“I’m not going to mince words with you all,” Greene said. “Democrats want Republicans dead. They’ve already started the killings.”
Greene continued her speech by making additional incendiary remarks. “Joe Biden has declared every freedom-loving American an enemy of the state,” she said.
It was Trump who used this specific terminology, referring to President Joe Biden as an “enemy of the state” during a rally in Pennsylvania last month.
“We will take back our country from the communists who have stolen it and want us to disappear,” she continued. “We will expose the unelected bureaucrats, the real enemies within, who have abused their power and have declared political warfare on the greatest president this country has ever had.” https://www.businessinsider.com/video-donald-trumo-rally-mtg-deceptively-claims-democrats-killings-republicans-2022-10
A collection of radical right figures including white nationalists and ultranationalist European leaders gathered in Manhattan for the New York Young Republican Club’s (NYYRC) annual gala Saturday night, where that group’s president declared “total war” on perceived enemies.
“We want to cross the Rubicon. We want total war. We must be prepared to do battle in every arena. In the media. In the courtroom. At the ballot box. And in the streets,” NYYRC president Gavin Wax declared to a room full of supporters at 583 Park Ave., an event venue on New York’s Upper East Side.
“This is the only language the left understands. The language of pure and unadulterated power,” Wax added. https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2022/12/11/white-nationalists-other-republicans-brace-total-war
Republican speakers repeatedly voiced an anti-democracy, authoritarian ideology, and extremists in the audience cheered wildly. White nationalists such as the Brimelows of VDARE and leaders from extreme far-right European parties like Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland, AfD), whom German officials placed under surveillance for their ties to extremism, and Austrian Freedom Party (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, FPÖ), ate and drank in the same room as newly elected Republican congresspeople, such as Long Island and Queens-based George Santos, Georgia-based Mike Collins and Florida-based Cory Mills.
Marjorie Taylor Greene was applauded when she told the NYYRC crowd in the event’s closing remarks that the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol would have succeeded if she had planned it and that the insurrectionists would have been armed.