A Return to Leftist Self-Defense

Communities targeted by escalating right-wing violence are learning from their own histories how to keep each other safe.

“In moments where I have seen [community defense], it’s always been something that has been asked for explicitly,” says Snow. [Yellow Peril Tactical] YPT formed in 2020 amid a slew of anti-Asian hate crimes. Organizers from around the U.S. met through activist networks and began supporting each other not just in learning self-defense and firearms skills but also in creating more visible networks of care and connecting their ideas about community empowerment to international struggles such as supporting anarchists fighting Russian aggression in Ukraine. 

A Return to Leftist Self-Defense

Related:

California Gun Control: How Ronald Reagan and the Black Panthers Started a Movement

Leftist Case For Gun Rights – Racism & Gun Control

[2008] When the Left Was Right

The ghosts of 1968 are haunting Barack Obama, which is tremendously unfair, I say as his coeval, given that our cohort spent the Chicago Democratic Convention sticking baseball cards in our bicycle spokes rather than pelting Mayor Daley’s finest with porcine epithets. But guilt by association is ironclad in these days when American political discourse is controlled by hall monitors and tattletales. Obama’s friendship—acquaintance?—with Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn is about to get extended play as the Republicans contrast Obama’s Weatherfriends with their nominee’s stint in the Hanoi Hilton.

When the Left Was Right

Four Americans and two Russians conspired to sway elections, influence politics, Justice Department says

The Justice Department unsealed grand jury indictments on Tuesday against four U.S. citizens and two Russian nationals who are charged with attempting to execute wide-ranging influence operation to sow political discord, sway a local election in Florida and eventually meddle in the 2020 presidential election.

The indictment, which adds to an existing July 2022 case, alleges that Moscow-resident Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, founder of the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia, worked with at least two Russian intelligence officials between 2014 and 2022 “engaged in a years-long foreign malign influence campaign targeting the United States.”

Four Americans and two Russians conspired to sway elections, influence politics, Justice Department says (archived)

They’re being charged for violating Title 18 U.S.C. §951 (foreign relations, agents of foreign governments) and Title 18 U.S.C. §371 (conspiracy). These are the same violations that Maria Butina was charged with.

U.S. charges four Americans with aiding Kremlin efforts + U.S. imposes economic sanctions on black community projects

Federal authorities charged four Americans on Tuesday with roles in a malign campaign pushing pro-Kremlin propaganda in Florida and Missouri — expanding a previous case that charged a Russian operative with running illegal influence agents within the United States.

U.S. charges four Americans with aiding Kremlin efforts

H/T: Natylie’s Place: Understanding Russia

Related:

U.S. imposes economic sanctions on black community projects

Alexander Ionov case – Russiagate 2

‘When it’s anyone but white Christian cis men, it’s not a right anymore’: Conservatives finally want gun control—for trans people

The Nashville school shooting is leading conservatives to finally call for gun control. Their newfound enthusiasm for reforming gun laws is based on transphobia, but some of their suggestions are also supported by gun control advocates.

‘When it’s anyone but white Christian cis men, it’s not a right anymore’: Conservatives finally want gun control—for trans people

Related:

Ben Shapiro: Ban Trans People From Owning Guns

Not surprising, Shapiro didn’t mention Trump getting rid of a mental health regulations for owning firearms in 2018.

Did President Trump Revoke Gun Background Checks for Mentally Ill People?

While the law did not change who is required to be the subject of background checks, it is true that Trump signed the repeal of a measure that would have plausibly prevented certain classes of mentally ill people from purchasing firearms by allowing a new data source to be included the system that runs those background checks. As such we rank the claim mostly true.

Denial of Mumia’s appeal: An affront to basic justice and the law

Mumia Abu-Jamal, his family and his supporters around the world had every reason and right to hope that all their hard work would pay off in persuading Judge Lucretia Clemons from the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas to follow and apply the law, as has been done in other cases involving Brady and Batson violations.

Denial of Mumia’s appeal: An affront to basic justice and the law