Substations beware: 'Accelerationists' see power grid attacks as way to create chaos, end contemporary society

Photo from TPM via Getty Images

If all forces result from interactions, the cross-mix of technology and capitalism has supporters and haters. Hunter Walker describes one of the latter in Talking Points Memo: "The first chapter of the black-and-white PDF magazine begins with an ominous warning. Over four dense pages, the anonymous writers paint a picture of 'an anti-tech revolution, beginning with the annihilation of the U.S. energy grid,'"  "'Hospitals would fail. . . the collapse of the system. . . . chaos, agony, and death.' . . . Along with a depiction of a widespread blackout, it included a precise list of the locations of 'The Most Critically Important Electric Substations in the U.S.'"

Walker writes, "This apocalyptic brand of extremist rhetoric — and the focus, specifically, on targeting substations — is part of a growing phenomenon . . . . Experts have attributed the wave to the digital spread of right-wing accelerationist ideology, which aims to hasten societal collapse. . . . It is easy to dismiss these writings as digital bluster, but law enforcement and academic experts have repeatedly attributed the frightening online rhetoric to the real-world rise in assaults on power stations."

Over the past 10 years, the pairing of anti-capitalism ideologies with an actionable plan has evolved. "The electric grid has increasingly come into the crosshairs since an April 2013 sniper attack on a Pacific Gas and Electric substation in Metcalf, California," Walker reports. "Since then, the idea of shooting attacks on the power grid has gained traction. . . . The proliferation of extremist materials online is a challenge for law enforcement. According to the Department of Homeland Security, there are over 79,000 substations that play a vital part in the nation's electrical grid. Many are in remote locations and are privately owned, which means they have varying standards for security."

"Relatively simple shooting attacks from far-right white supremacist terrorists have emerged as a major threat to the grid," Walker writes. "Thirteen individuals associated with the white supremacist movement faced federal charges related to 'planning attacks on the energy sector' between 2016 and 2022, according to a report from the George Washington University Program on Extremism. . . There is a consensus among federal law enforcement agencies that white supremacists have become the top domestic terror threat."

Michael Edison Hayden, spokesperson for the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, told Walker, "Thinking about how the power lines function. . . it is the central nervous system of contemporary society, and that's why it's so important to accelerationists. . . . As they see it ... the system that is oppressing them cannot function … without power. . . . Things around gender and sexuality right now are animating extremists on the right more than race. . . . That reverberates from the White House when Trump was there all the way down to accelerationist cells." Walker adds, "White supremacists are not the only adherents of accelerationism. There are anarchists and some on the far left who could be described as accelerationists."

Conservative Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod may respond to white nationalists by excommunicating them

Rev. Matthew Harrison (Photo by Erik M. Lunsford, LCMS)

"This is evil. We condemn it in the name of Christ." So said the Rev. Matthew Harrison, president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, in calling for the excommunication of unrepentant white supremacists in the church’s ranks.

Amid congregational disturbances and online threats to church leadership, Harrison is "rebuking an extremist effort to exert influence within the conservative Lutheran denomination," report Jack Jenkins and Emily McFarlan Miller of Religion News Service. "In a recent letter . . . Harrison said he was 'shocked to learn recently that a few members of LCMS congregations have been propagating radical and un-Christian views via Twitter and other social media . . . . He noted far-right members were causing 'local disruption' for congregations and alleged that LCMS leadership and deaconesses had fallen victim to online threats."

Merriam-Webster defines "alt-right" as "a right-wing, primarily online political movement or grouping based in the U.S. whose members reject mainstream conservative politics and espouse extremist beliefs and policies typically centered on ideas of white nationalism." In his letter, Harrison adds a more detailed view. "Harrison went on to rebuke the 'horrible and racist teachings of the so-called ‘alt-right,’" listing ideologies such as "white supremacy, Nazism, pro-slavery, anti-interracial marriage, women as property, fascism, death for homosexuals, even genocide," RNS reports. "He noted that while the LCMS is 'not a top-down institution,' he would work with local pastors and district presidents 'to address this matter wherever it arises among us and reject it.' Citing Scripture, he called on those spewing hateful ideologies to repent."

RNS explains, "The letter comes in the wake of an article published this month by anti-fascist group Machaira Action alleging the 'rise of a white supremacist faction within the Lutheran faith.' The post singled out Corey Mahler, who has reportedly been active in far-right circles and has posted about whiteness and 'white genocide' on Twitter. Mahler also identifies as a Christian nationalist. . . .
Asked whether Mahler would be excommunicated, a representative for the church he allegedly attends in Tennessee said the matter was being handled internally but declined to comment further."

Harrison's letter also addresses "a recent controversy over a new edition of Luther’s Large Catechism," RNS reports. "Earlier this year, the president asked Concordia Publishing House, the denomination’s publishing partner, to pause distribution . . .  citing an 'online disturbance.'" The disturbances came in the form of Amazon reviews of the new edition. "A one-star review complains, 'Women, forbidden from teaching according to Scripture, are afforded extensive opportunities to do just that in this sorry compilation.'. . . Others slam the accompanying essays as 'woke' and accuse them of promoting pedophilia."

In response to the harsh reviews, Harrison responded with a written update. “I have had time to re-evaluate the controverted sentences and found that while some things might have been expressed more clearly, nevertheless, there is nothing in the content of the volume promoting critical race theory, confusion of sexuality issues, or any theological position at odds with biblical and confessional Lutheranism."

Researchers say rural journalists properly define 'hate speech' but struggle to apply the definition to local events

"Journalists who cover rural areas in the United States say they are afraid to report on hate groups, and this fear is exacerbated by close community ties and limited resources among rural journalists," researchers from four universities write in a paper recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Journalism Practice.

The researchers used “hate speech” as definitional term in 33 interviews with U.S. journalists reporting in rural communities. "Rural journalists articulate a clear definition for hate speech, but struggle to apply that definition to events within their communities, even as they articulate numerous forms of hate," the researchers write. "Journalists often dismissed acts of hate using the residual category of 'not hate, but …' to signal something that they felt was out of place or unsuitable but did not rise to the legal definition of hate speech and thus was not worth reporting on."

The researchers are Greg Perreault of Appalachian State University, Ruth Moon of Louisiana State University, Jessica Fargen Walsh of the University of Nebraska and Mildred Perrealult of East Tennessee State University.

Rural journalists in small-scale study say they're afraid to report on hate groups or call certain remarks hate speech

"Journalists who cover rural areas in the United States say they are afraid to report on hate groups, and this fear is exacerbated by close community ties and limited resources among rural journalists," say four researchers who interviewed 33 journalists reporting in rural communities and published their findings in the peer-reviewed journal Journalism Practice.

"Rural journalists articulate a clear definition for hate speech, but struggle to apply that definition to events within their communities, even as they articulate numerous forms of hate," Gregory Perreault of Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., and his collegaues write. "Journalists often dismissed acts of hate using the residual category of 'not hate, but …' to signal something that they felt was out of place or unsuitable but did not rise to the legal definition of hate speech and thus was not worth reporting on. This approach ends up challenging journalists’ normative commitments to their communities and exemplifies their desire to avoid an objectivity trap."

Rural journalists may provide “the only nuanced local coverage community members will encounter” on the topic, the researchers write. “The journalists we interviewed articulated a clear definition for hate speech but struggled to apply that definition to the events they articulated within their communities. . . . Using the common refrain of ‘We don’t have any hate groups, but … ,‘ journalists nevertheless articulated acts of hate in their communities, which were not always associated explicitly with hate groups.”

NiemanLab reports on the paper, "Being more closely connected to their audiences, rural journalists were more reluctant to label such people and activities in their communities as hate — at least in part because of the fear of repercussion that would arise from such declarations in coverage. The researchers wrote, “Journalists in some cases felt pressure from their audience to apply false balance in their work through labeling groups like Black Lives Matter as a hate group.”

Perreault's co-authors are Ruth Moon of Louisiana State University, Jessica Walsh of the University of Nebraska and Mildred Perreault of East Tennessee State University. 

Fact-checking President Biden's inauguration speech

President Biden "delivered a traditional speech at his inauguration that offered little for fact-checkers," FactCheck.org says. "When he did offer us some facts to check, the 46th president of the United States largely hit his marks on domestic threats, Covid-19 and the Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913." 

Biden said there has been a rise in "political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism." He's correct about the rise in political extremism, FactCheck says. The Department of Homeland Security's Homeland Threat Assessment report in October said as much. As for white supremacy, the Southern Poverty Law Center said in 2019 that the number of white nationalist group chapters had increased from 100 in 2017 to 148 in 2018. The Federal Bureau of Investigation reported a 19.5% increase in hate crimes from 2016 to 2019, and noted that hate-crime perpetrators were increasingly white: In 2016, 46.3% of known hate offenders were white; that rose to 52.5% in 2019. In September, FBI Director Christopher Wray said "racially motivated violent extremism" made up the largest share of domestic terrorism, especially white supremacist movements.

Biden said the coronavirus pandemic has "taken as many lives in one year as America lost in all of World War II." FactCheck acknowledges being nit-picky on this one, but says "Biden would have been on firmer ground had he said there have been more Covid-19 deaths than 'battle deaths' from WWII. As of Biden's speech, 402,997 had died in the U.S. from Covid-19. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, 405,399 soldiers died in World War II, but 113,842 of them were not in battle.

Biden said millions of jobs have been lost and hundreds of thousands of business have closed during the pandemic. Though the U.S. has 9.8 million fewer jobs now than in February 2020, the total number of businesses that have permanently closed due to the pandemic is unknown. "Hundreds of thousands" is likely correct though, according to several different estimates.

The president also referenced the Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913, during which he said "thousands of protesters tried to block brave women marching for the right to vote." That's accurate, FactCheck reports: "On March 3, 1913, the day before President-elect Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration, more than 5,000 marchers paraded down Pennsylvania Avenue in support of women’s right to vote." Crowds of men, mostly in town for Wilson's inauguration, blocked and harassed marchers. "In all, 100 marchers were injured and taken to the hospital, and a troop of cavalry from Virginia was called in to control the crowd, according to the Library of Congress essay," FactCheck reports.

For extra reading, The Washington Post has created an annotated version of Biden's speech that analyzes key statements.

Rural Alabama editor who called on KKK to ride is finally out

Goodloe Sutton
(Montgomery Advertiser photo)

A rural Alabama newspaper publisher is out for good, months after an editorial calling for the Ku Klux Klan to "night ride again" against "Democrats in the Republican Party and Democrats [who] are plotting to raise taxes in Alabama," Jay Reeves reports for The Associated Press.

Goodloe Sutton, 80, was widely criticized after the Feb. 14 editorial in The Democrat-Reporter in Linden, which he has owned for decades. After mounting public anger, in late February he handed the reins over to Elicia Dexter, who had worked as the weekly's front office clerk for six weeks. But Dexter quit in mid-March. Sutton, who still owned the paper, was still trying to control some of the content, she said.

Later in March, Sutton announced he had sold the paper to a Chicago couple. But the Alabama Political Reporter discovered that the buyers were connected to the KKK, and the sale fell through.

Now, the sale is for real, according to new owner and operator Tommy Wells. Sutton "doesn't even have a key anymore," Wells told Reeves. Wells, lately a sports publicist at a Texas college, has about three decades of experience in the newspaper business. He said he had approached Sutton several years ago about buying the paper after he heard Sutton planned to close it, Reeves reports.

Black woman replaces publisher slammed for KKK editorial

Elicia Dexter (LinkedIn photo)

"A newspaper in a small city in Alabama that drew condemnation over an editorial calling for the Ku Klux Klan to 'ride again' has a new editor and publisher: a 46-year-old black woman," Sarah Mervosh reports for The New York Times.

Goodloe Sutton stepped down from The Democrat-Reporter in Linden on Thursday and handed the reins to Elicia Dexter, a Chicago native who was hired six weeks ago as the weekly's front office clerk. She had recently moved to her father's hometown in nearby Sweet Water, Ala., Mervosh reports.

"Dexter is a graduate of Eastern Illinois University, where she received a bachelor’s degree in speech communication," Michael Brice-Saddler reports for The Washington Post. "She also received a master’s degree in human services from the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership in Chicago and a master’s degree in counseling from Argosy University in Virginia."

Dexter told the Post she had planned to quit the paper if nothing changed after the editorial. She said she and Sutton had had an "open and honest" discussion about his comments, and that he offered her the paper on Thursday. "He told Dexter she could carry on the legacy of his family, which has operated the Democrat-Reporter for decades, by taking the paper in a 'new direction,'" Brice-Saddler reports.

"The Democrat-Reporter, which has served Linden since 1879, had been in Mr. Sutton’s family for decades. But the newspaper, which has a circulation of a few thousand, had dwindled to what amounted to a one-man show in recent years," Mervosh reports. The paper received national acclaim in the 1990s for its reporting on a corrupt sheriff, but Linden mayor Charles Moore told the Times that the paper lost its credibility when Sutton's wife Jean died. "She was a very good investigative reporter, and also a real sweet person," Moore said.

Sutton will retain ownership but no longer oversee the paper's daily operations. On Saturday he told the Times that he handed over the paper because of his age, not because of the controversy. He didn't apologize for the editorial, and said that editorials were meant to "upset people, make them take action," Mervosh reports.

Sutton "said he had hoped the editorial would draw attention to corruption in Washington and the FBI, though the editorial did not mention the agency. He said he wrote it 'in irony' to suggest that the 'lowlife' KKK investigate the FBI, which he said he held in even lower regard," Mervosh reports.

Dexter said she didn't agree with invoking the KKK, and said there are "other ways you can talk about cleaning Washington without using that group," Mervosh reports.

Rural Alabama publisher calls for KKK to 'night ride' against Democrats who want to raise taxes; outcry ensues

UPDATE, Feb. 20: Directors of the Alabama Press Association have censured Goodloe Sutton and suspended his newspaper's membership. "The members have a right under the bylaws to address the question of expulsion of the newspaper at the next membership meeting," APA said.

Goodloe Sutton in 2015
(Montgomery Advertiser photo by Alvin Benn)

A newspaper publisher in rural Alabama is drawing criticism after he wrote a Feb. 14 editorial calling for "the Ku Klux Klan to night ride again" against "Democrats in the Republican Party and Democrats [who] are plotting to raise taxes in Alabama."

Goodloe Sutton has worked at the Democrat-Reporter in Linden since 1964 and inherited the paper from his father in the 1980s, Melissa Brown reports for the Montgomery Advertiser. The paper has lost much of its circulation and struggled financially in recent years, the Advertiser reported in 2015.

When the Advertiser asked Sutton about the editorial, he said, "If we could get the Klan to go up there and clean out D.C., we'd all been better off." Asked to clarify what he meant, Sutton said "We'll get the hemp ropes out, loop them over a tall limb and hang all of them."

Sutton, who is about 80, told the Advertiser he was calling for the lynchings of socialist-communists, not Americans, and compared the Klan to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The Klan, he said, "wasn't violent until they needed to be" and "didn't kill but a few people." Sutton said he welcomed comments, calls or boycotts of the paper, Brown reports.

Red marks Linden in Marengo County;
Demopolis is at north border (Wikipedia)

An outcry against the editorial began after student journalists at Auburn University posted it on Twitter. The Southern Mississippi University School of Mass Communications and Journalism removed Sutton from its Hall of Fame, the Advertiser reports, and the Auburn University Journalism Advisory Council revoked a community journalism award it had given him, The Auburn Plainsman reports.

"Sutton and the newspaper received national acclaim in the 1990s for their reporting on a corrupt local sheriff," Brown reports. But in 2015 he landed the paper in the public eye for a different reason, after running a headline titled "Selma black thugs murder Demopolite Saturday night." Demopolis (2010 population 7,483) is home of the daily Demopolis Times and the largest town in Marengo County, which had 21,027 people in 2010. Linden had 2,123.

Democratic officials in the state swiftly denounced the editorial. "Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.), who prosecuted two members of the Klan for their role in the 1963 Birmingham church bombing that killed four young girls, called the editorial 'disgusting' and demanded Sutton’s immediate resignation," Antonia Farzan reports for The Washington Post. "Echoing the call for Sutton’s resignation was Rep. Terri A. Sewell (D-Ala.), who wrote, 'For the millions of people of color who have been terrorized by white supremacy, this kind of ‘editorializing’ about lynching is not a joke — it is a threat.'"

UPDATE, Feb. 22: Auburn journalism professor John Carvalho writes for the Advertiser that he was warned that Sutton was racist when the school honored him in 2009, but kept quiet about it, and that "allowed racism to fester and even grow. And now, within the current political climate, it is once asserting itself more strongly than ever."

Southern Poverty Law Center updates its Hate Map

SPLC map; click on the image to enlarge it, or click here to view the interactive version.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has updated its Hate Map, an interactive map of hate groups in the United States, along with an analysis of hate group activity in 2017. SPLC identified 954 hate groups in the U.S. targeting one or several of the following populations: immigrants, minorities, Caucasians, the LGBTQ community, Muslims, Jews, women, and more.

In an accompanying story, the SPLC says 2017 "was a year that saw the “alt-right,” the latest incarnation of white supremacy, break through the firewall that for decades kept overt racists largely out of the political and media mainstream." These groups usually rise during Democratic presidencies because of fears about gun control and federal action against them, but the total number of hate groups in the U.S. rose 4 percent from 2016.

White supremacists felt emboldened because Trump appointed Steve Bannon as an adviser, SPLC says. Bannon boasted that his website, Breitbart News, was the platform of the alt-right movement. After the white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke said the rally was a "turning point" and promised that white supremacists would "fulfill the promises of Donald Trump" to "take our country back," SPLC writes.

KKK groups fell from 130 to 72, but other white supremacist groups grew, which SPLC writes is a "clear indication that the new generation of white suprem­acists is rejecting the Klan’s hoods and robes for the hipper image of the more loosely organized alt-right movement."

Black nationalist groups grew from 193 in 2016 to 233 in 2017, but lag far behind the more than 600 white supremacist groups and have far less mainstream political influence.

Anti-Muslim groups grew for the third straight year in a row, and the anti-government movement is surging, with 689 active groups in 2017 compared to 623 in 2016. Of those, 273 were armed militias, SPLC says.

Trump blamed for anti-Muslim groups tripling in 2016; anti-Muslim speakers touring rural areas

The number of hate groups in the U.S. rose last year for the second year in a row, from 892 to 917, and the number of anti-Muslim groups nearly tripled from 34 to 101, says the Southern Poverty Law Center's annual Census of Hate, which includes state-level maps and appears in its quarterly Intelligence Report.

Mark Potok, a SPLC senior fellow, argues that the rise in hate groups can be attributed to President Trump, saying "the increase in anti-Muslim hate was fueled by Trump’s incendiary rhetoric, including his campaign pledge to bar Muslims from entering the U.S." Along with the rise in hate groups there has been an increase in crimes against Muslims, with FBI statistics showing "that hate crimes against Muslims grew by 67 percent in 2015, the year in which Trump launched his campaign."

Anti-Muslim campaigns have become common in some rural areas, with speakers touring small towns. American Muslims have called Trump the "ring leader" championing mainstream hate.

Nearly 50 of the new anti-Muslim groups "are local chapters of ACT for America, an anti-Muslim activist group that claims Michael Flynn, who this week resigned as Trump’s national security adviser, as a board member," Abigail Hauslohner reports for The Washington Post. "Many of the groups the SPLC identified as part of the rise in extremist activity reject the label of 'hate group.'” (SPLC map: Hate groups in the U.S. For an interactive state-level version click here)

Ga. cop fired for flying Confederate flag sues city to regain job; refuses aid from 'neo-Confederates'

A former police officer in Roswell, Ga. (Best Places map), fired in July for flying the Confederate flag at her home has sued to get her job back, Hatcher Hurd reports for the Alpharetta Roswell Herald. After a resident complained about the flag, Sgt. Silvia Cotriss was first suspended, then fired.

She sued, "saying the city violated Cotriss’ First Amendment rights in terminating her by denying her right of free speech," Hurd writes. Attorney David Ates said in a statement: "Sylvia Cotriss, a 20-year veteran with the Roswell Police Department, was not making any political statement and certainly was not involved with any kind of hate group. She was simply displaying a symbol of her cultural heritage. Cotriss has the same rights of free speech as any American. Merely flying the Confederate flag does not mean she is taking any kind of racial position. But she is fired for it." He also noted that the state offers a license plate with the Confederate flag.

Ates also announced this week that they have denied a request for help from the Southern Legal Resource Center, whose founder Kirk Lyons has been classified as "neo-Confederate" by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Kristal Dixon reports for the Roswell Patch. Ates told the Patch, "We felt that their presence was distracting from the real issue in this case."

Tensions rising in rural Montana town that is part-time home to 'alt-right' movement founder

Best Places map

A rural ski-resort community in Montana has stepped into the national spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Whitefish, Mont., home to 6,400 residents, also is the part-time home of Richard Spencer, founder of the "alt-right" movement, which seeks a whites-only state, Katie Mettler reports for The Washington Post. The activist's parents, Sherry and Rand Spencer, are part-time Whitefish residents and Sherry owns a commercial building there.

Sherry "says she was targeted by activists, who, using the threat of massive protests as leverage, tried to bully her and her tenants into selling her commercial building and distancing herself from her son," Mettler writes. "Those same activists tell a different story—that what transpired was the work of a tightknit community trying to defend itself."

Richard's parents, who say they don't share their son's racial opinions, penned an op-ed piece in the local Daily Inter Lake, in which they wrote: “Our tenants are innocent victims and their businesses are threatened with boycotts for something over which they have no control. There is no justification for their sustaining collateral damage. We, too, are victims, having no role in any of the events that have unfolded recently.” Rand said in an email to the Daily Inter Lake that Sherry "has decided to sell the building in response to the threats," Lynette Hintze reports for the newspaper.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has described Richard Spencer "as an 'academic racist,' is highly educated and has worked for years to promote the creation of a minority-free 'ethno-state' and pride in white identity," Mettler writes. Spencer’s alt-right movement has claimed President-elect Donald Trump as its champion and Spencer "inspired a Nazi-like 'Hail Trump!' salute at a D.C. conference hosted by his National Policy Institute."

The incident in Whitefish drew the attention of neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer, which published a post Friday with a headline "Jews Targeting Richard Spencer’s Mother for Harassment and Extortion," Mettler writes. The post, which told people to “TAKE ACTION!," called "the Jewish people a 'vicious, evil race of hate-filled psychopaths'" and "shared the names of the Whitefish activists, who are all women, and their photos, which were accompanied by sexist commentary and digitally altered with overlays of the Star of David. The post included the women’s phone numbers, Twitter handles and email addresses, plus the names and contact information for their husbands." While the post said not to advocate or provoke violence, some women said they received death threats.

Trump's anti-immigration remarks fueling traffic for white supremacist websites, says researcher

Donald Trump's anti-immigration, anti-Muslim remarks have caused a spike in traffic to websites of white supremacists, says a Vanderbilt University researcher who tracks white-nationalist internet groups, Jim Patterson reports for Vanderbilt. Sophie Bjork-James, a post-doctoral fellow and lecturer of anthropology at the Nashville university, said Jewish journalists have been particularly targeted with a rise in anti-Semitic language.

Bjork-James told Patterson, "The Trump campaign has given the white nationalist movement a long-awaited opportunity to spread its message to a national audience. Trump’s messages about limiting immigration and banning Muslims from the U.S. have given the movement one of its largest membership boosts in decades, which will have impact long after this election cycle."

Bjork-James said that Don Black, founder of the white nationalist website Stormfront, "claims a 30 to 40 percent spike in web traffic in 2015 after Trump’s anti-immigration and ban Muslim speeches," Patterson writes. The Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website created in 2013, averages 1.9 million visitors per month, up from 1.2 million in 2015. (Read more)

American Muslims say Trump has made it harder for them; hate being preached in rural areas

Former FBI agent John Guandolo giving an
anti-Muslim speech Oct. 17 in rural Warroad, Minn.
(MPR News photo by Monika Lawrence)

Is Donald Trump spreading an anti-Muslim message that is fostering hate and racism in rural America? Some American Muslims say the presidential race has been worse for them than after 9/11, because unlike in 2001, there is now a "ring leader" championing mainstream hate, as a Somali refugee in Minnesota told M.J. Lee of CNN.

"Trump has run a hard-line, anti-immigration campaign built on promises to erect a wall and deport millions of undocumented immigrants. Last December, he announced a proposal to ban Muslims from entering the country," Lee reports after interviewing 40 Muslims around the nation. "Perhaps most disturbing about this election, many said, is the perception that Trump has helped to normalize animosity toward and suspicion of Muslims in the U.S. . . . He has suggested that profiling would be an effective strategy to prevent terrorism." Lee's story has no response from the Trump campaign.

Anti-Muslim campaigns have become common place in rural Minnesota, John Enger reports for Minnesota Public Radio. "North and central Minnesota have become fertile ground for traveling speakers who have built national careers spreading alarm about the danger they say Islam poses inside U.S. borders. At dozens of rural churches and schools, speakers have warned crowds about refugees and called on them to be prepared to oppose Muslims in Minnesota. This comes at a time of mounting political tension over immigration ahead of the contentious presidential election."

Former FBI agent John Guandolo, who travels the country giving anti-Muslim speeches, told a crowd in Warroad, Minn., "Are you prepared? Are you prepared for the two or three dozen jihadis in, pick a city in Minnesota, with mortars or shoulder-fired rockets? You don't think they can get those in the United States?" Another featured speaker in rural Minnesota, Usama Dakdok, also travels the country preaching against Islam, including claims that it's a cult, not a religion, Enger writes.

Mike Buffington, who owns several rural newspapers in Georgia, shared an exchange he had on Facebook with a local community member and Trump supporter who compared Muslims to rats that need to be exterminated. The poster wrote: “I have first hand dealings with muslins [sic] and can tell you what they think and how they will act when they reach a critical mass. You were raised in a rural county, but not in the country. If you ever heard of having a rat killing??? Well when rats are in numbers to be a problem you have to go out and get rid of all of them, that includes males females and all little rats, because we all know a little rats grows up to be a big rat and then the problem starts again.” Buffington wrote, "Vile. Disgusting. Deplorable.I will only identify this man as 'LP' here. He’s known in the community, a former military man and a self-proclaimed Christian. And yet he openly calls for murdering men, women and children who have done nothing wrong simply because they have different religious beliefs than he does. . . . It’s time for civilized Americans to speak out against people like LP whose soul has gotten lost in the flood of hatred that is washing over our political landscape. Silence is acquiescence. "

Anti-Muslim groups have called for stricter border security and have protested Muslim burial grounds and a proposed mosque, calling Muslims terrorists and rapists. A recent study also found that Americans, on average, think Muslims make up 15 percent of population. The actual figure is 1 percent.

Rural Hoosiers tell KKK members, 'Leave our town'

When three Ku Klux Klan recruiters tried to promote their cause recently in rural Winchester, Ind. (Best Places map) local residents made it clear the organization was not welcome, Keith Roysdon reports for The Star Press in nearby Muncie. "Officials let the Klan members have their say. And then townspeople told them in no uncertain terms: We don't want you here." with residents chanting "Leave our town! Leave our town! Leave our town!"

"Mayor Shon Byrum said he felt it was important that the demonstrators' First Amendment right to free speech not be denied," Roysdon writes. "But he said he was proud that residents of the Randolph County city of about 4,700 people let Klan members know they wouldn't tolerate their message." Byrum told Roysdon, "They did end up leaving after the community came out against hate."'

The KKK, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, in recent years has re-focused its agenda on immigration and border security, which also are two of the main issues in the 2016 presidential election. Indiana has 11 electoral votes and is the home of Republican Gov. Mike Pence, the GOP vice-presidential choice of Donald Trump, who has expressed strong opinions about immigration and border security. He lads Democrat Hillary Clinton in Indiana by 7 to 11 percentage points, according to RealClear Politics.

Newspaper runs staff-and-AP story on Ku Klux Klan, draws complaints, runs editorial

A "white pride" rally in April in Cedar Town, Ga.

An East Texas newspaper has drawn criticism for running a story on the 150th anniversary of the Ku Klux Klan, in which it detailed the organization's history, its current agenda and its role in the region. One interesting thing the story did reveal is that the KKK's top current concerns, immigration and border security, also are two of the main issues in the 2016 presidential election.

The Longview News-Journal added to an Associated Press story, originally published June 30, and ran it Saturday. On Sunday, it ran an editorial responding to objections from readers: "The News-Journal takes seriously its responsibility to inform its audience about a variety of subjects. Some are reasons for celebration and pride, and we revel in telling those stories. Others are less palatable, but must be told. If ignoring difficult realities would make them go away we would gladly remain silent. But ignoring them has the opposite result. Ignoring uncomfortable and ugly truths allows them to gain a foothold, to grow and flourish. Ignoring them would be an abdication of this newspaper’s responsibility to its audience, which it strives to serve without fear or favor."

Texas has the most KKK groups with 52, and Tennessee is second with 16, though numbers fluctuate, Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center told the News-Journal. "Potok said the center has seen a slight increase in Klan growth in the past year or so—a 'backlash to the backlash' over the Confederate flag and other race-related issues stemming from events such as the Charleston, South Carolina, church shooting."

Potok said Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's "run for the presidency also has been energizing Klan groups," the News-Journal reports. "The Republican nominee's embrace of nationalist and protectionist policy was cited by David Duke, a former KKK grand wizard, as an influence in his decision to run for the U.S. Senate representing Louisiana."

"Klan leaders across the country said they believe U.S. politics are going their way as a nationalist, us-against-them mentality deepens across the nation," reports the News-Journal. "Stopping or limiting immigration—a desire of the Klan dating back to the 1920s—is more of a cause than ever. And the leaders say membership has gone up at the twilight of President Barack Obama's second term in office, though few would provide numbers." (Read more)

Southern Baptist Convention asks members of its churches to not display Confederate battle flag

The battle flag of Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army
of Northern Virginia came to be known as the
Confederate battle flag, often as a rectangle.

The Southern Baptist Convention, which has more than 15 million members, has called on its followers to stop flying the Confederate flag. The organization "voted Tuesday to amend a resolution against the Confederate battle flag, following a similar denouncement by [Mississippi's] Methodist Church last week," Sarah Fowler reports for The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson. The Baptist convention said in a resolution, “We call our brothers and sisters in Christ to discontinue the display of the Confederate battle flag as a sign of solidarity of the whole Body of Christ, including our African-American brothers and sisters."

 Mississippi's flag includes the battle flag.

Some Southern states' flags have hints of Confederate flags, but Mississippi's is explicit, using the battle flag as its canton. William Perkins, editor of the Baptist Record, the newspaper of the Mississippi Baptist Convention, "said Wednesday that changing the state flag was the Christian thing to do," Fowler writes. Speaking of the Civil War, Perkins told her, "As a native Southerner, I have heard the stories from my grandparents passed down from their grandparents about the valor of the people who fought in that war, but this is 2016, and as Christians we need to decide whether we’re going to be held back by symbols of the past or whether we’re going to move forward and do the right thing, and that requires prayer from each one us. It’s a symbol of oppression and strife and offense."

Rural Mo. official's anti-gay remarks protected under First Amendment, says city attorney

Saint Robert, Mo. resident Daniel Kallman 
will perform in the June show

A rural alderman who used his private social media account to publicly bash a local drag queen event is protected under the First Amendment, said the city attorney of Saint Robert, Mo., reports Darrell Maurina, publisher of the Pulaski County Daily News. In referring to a local drag show event scheduled for June, Alderman Allan Johannsen wrote: "Why don't you guys act right and find a nice woman instead of a person of the same sex. ... I think queers need to stop trying to recruit more perverts this sick mental illness is not any better than child molesters. The desire of someone wanting someone of the same sex and wanting to have sex with a child is a sick perversion. These people need some serious mental health treatment."

The "city council adopted a social media policy several years ago which limits use of social media not only by city employees and volunteers but also by city elected officials," Maurina writes. "However, City Attorney Tyce Smith said the policy was not applicable to Johannsen’s comments and that 'personal opinion is one of the most highly protected rights of the United States.' In addition, Smith said Johannsen 'is an elected official who privately retains First Amendment rights' and that 'his public status is immune from punitive action for privately expressed opinions.'”

Smith wrote in a letter to George Lauritson, mayor of the town in south-central Missouri, neat Fort Leonard Wood: "The facts as I understand them are that Mr. Johannsen did not access social media with city provided resources. Mr. Johannsen provided a personal opinion outside of his role as a member of the St. Robert Board of Aldermen. The U.S. Supreme Court in Garcetti v Ceballos … outlines the First Amendment precedent allowing a public official, whether elected or otherwise, to express his private opinion outside of his official position. In this case, Mr. Johannsen clearly was stating a personal opinion. As such, that personal opinion is one of the most highly protected rights of the United States.”

Some news organizations have accused Maurina of using the newspaper to try to get the show cancelled, Danny Wicentowski reports for Riverfront Times in St. Louis. Maurina denies those allegations, but said he would like to see changes, writing in a Facebook post: "I regularly defend things I don't like. That's what free speech means. Nobody can stop this event, but it can be put in a location where it isn't near a children's athletic facility. It doesn't have to have the doors open at 6 p.m. with the show beginning at 8 p.m."

Anti-Muslim immigration speakers are spreading hate and fear in rural areas

Anti-Muslim immigration speakers are active in rural areas, led by anti-immigration activists such as Ron Branstner, who tells crowds of several hundred enthusiastic supporters that Muslim refugees are coming to the U.S. "to divide and conquer, get rid of our Constitution, get rid of our way of life and implement it with another way of life called," Matt McKinney reports for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "Branstner’s radical message, made up of broad anti-Muslim themes mixed with fears about immigration and the cost of helping refugees, is increasingly finding a receptive audience, especially in places where new immigrants are changing the face of the community." (Star Tribune photo by Jeff Wheeler: Ron Branstner speaking in Avon. Minn.)

Branstner isn't alone in spreading his message in Minnesota, McKinney writes. "From Mankato to Mountain Iron, speakers such as Usama Dakdok, A.J. Kern, Brigitte Gabriel, Cynthia Khan, Jeffrey Baumann and Clare Lopez are showing up in churches, restaurants, VFWs and community centers to address crowds and air concerns about immigrants, the Qur’an and what they see as a threat to the U.S. Constitution. Some portray Muslims as practicing a hateful religion, some say Muslims are practically duty-bound to destroy Christians. Others maintain that Muslims are working to someday take control of the U.S."

"To some, such as a Grand Forks, N.D., City Council member who invited Dakdok to speak there last fall, the talks are viewed as an exercise in free speech," McKinney writes. "But the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and other groups see the message as dangerous hate speech that riles up audiences with depictions of a Christian America under threat." Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of CAIR, told McKinney, “A lot of these fears are coming from that type of general fear of the ‘other,’ and not real knowledge of Islam."

McKinney writes, "Anti-Muslim sentiment has risen dramatically nationwide in the past year, sparking protests and anti-refugee legislation in Idaho, Tennessee, Alabama, Texas and elsewhere, said Stephen Piggott of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit focused on civil rights." Natalie Ringsmuth, co-founder of a Facebook page called #UniteCloud, which uses social media and conversation to bring people together regardless of their religious beliefs, told McKinney, “The people we are concerned with are people who have never met a Muslim and are nervous, and they don’t know how to separate fact from fiction at this point." (Read more)

University of Mississippi removes state flag that includes Confederate flag symbol

A student-led protest led the University of Mississippi on Monday to quietly take down the state flag—which includes the Confederate flag in one corner—from campus, reports University of Mississippi News. "The flag will be preserved in the University Archives along with resolutions from students, faculty and staff calling for its removal."

"On Oct. 20, the student senate voted 33-15-1 to request that the university remove the flag," reports University of Mississippi News. Interim Chancellor Morris Stocks, who in June joined state and university officials in calling for a change in the state flag, told the News, “The University of Mississippi community came to the realization years ago that the Confederate battle flag did not represent many of our core values, such as civility and respect for others. Since that time, we have become a stronger and better university. We join other leaders in our state who are calling for a change in the state flag.”

For years Jackson State University, Alcorn State University and Mississippi Valley State University, "all historically black universities, have long not flown the flag," Royce Swayze reports for The Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Miss.

Republican Gov. Phil Bryant, who has said it is unlikely the state flag will change, said in a statement "that publicly funded institutions should respect Mississippi law since it grants the state flag 'all the respect and ceremonious etiquette given the American flag,'" Swayze writes. "According to Section 37-13-13 of Mississippi law, the flag 'shall be displayed in close proximity to the school building at all times during the hours of daylight when the school is in session when the weather will permit without damage to the flag . . . It shall be the duty of the board of trustees of the school district to provide for the flags and their display.” But the law does not reference institutions of higher learning.