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Federal officers walk through tear gas while dispersing a crowd of about a thousand people during a protest in Portland, Ore. (Nathan Howard / Getty Images)

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A major American city has been taken over by violent anarchists, according to the Trump administration and right-wing news. Portland, Ore., is a city under siege, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Chad Wolf, said last week. On Thursday, Wolf visited Portland to see for himself the lawless destruction, which is allegedly so dire as to warrant the deployment of federal forces, who have spent the last few weeks teargassing, beating, and temporarily kidnapping protesters. Fox Newss Sean Hannity decried constant chaos; Tucker Carlson claimed the whole city had been destroyed by the mob.Ad Policy

This would be alarming stuff, if it were true. Portland, where I live, has been the site of ongoing protests against police brutality and racism since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, a 54-day stretch of activism as of this writing. Over the past two months, mostly peaceful demonstrators have filled bridges, parks, and Interstate 84, sometimes numbering in the thousands. In what is now a predictable pattern, each night a group converges near the Justice Center and Federal Courthouse downtown. Usually small provocationstossed water bottles or fireworks or a Granny Smith apple with a bite out of itspark a wave of violence from law enforcement. Occasionally, there have been more overt acts of vandalism, particularly in the immediate wake of Floyds death, including broken windows and small fires. (For more detailed timelines of the protests in Portland from local reporters, read this and this.)

But the city is hardly wracked by chaos. Outside of the few square blocks downtown that are marked by graffiti, boarded-up windows, and metal fencing, things feel normalor rather, as normal as possible given the impact of Covid-19, which has had a far more disruptive effect than have the protests. The bulk of the violence cited by Wolf amounted to graffiti and other property damage. Meanwhile, his agents and other federal officers have seriously injured a number of protesters, including a Navy veteran who had his hand broken by federal officers after he tried talking to them. The mood in the crowd downtown is often jovialat least until law enforcement arriveswith people dancing and chanting and giving out vegan stew, barbecue, and donated bike helmets. On Friday night around 10:30 pm, shortly after federal forces started spraying tear gas, filling a city block with noxious fumes, a few families were strolling by shuttered storefronts just a few blocks away, apparently unaffected by the siege.

Federal agents showed up in Portland in early July, after Trump signed an executive order protecting statues and monuments from criminal violence during racial justice protests. In response, the Department of Homeland Security created a task force to surge resources. Ostensibly, federal forces are in Portland to protect federal property, including the courthouse. But their primary effect has been to escalate violence. On July 11, a deputy with a tactical unit of the US Marshals Service shot a demonstrator named Donavan LaBella in the head with an impact munition, fracturing his skull. On July 16, reporters for Oregon Public Broadcasting reported that federal agents were grabbing people on the street and pulling them into unmarked cars.

I am basically tossed into the van. And I had my beanie pulled over my face so I couldnt see and they held my hands over my head, Mark Pettibone, one of the people detained, told OPB. While Pettibone had been at the demonstration that night, he was on his way home when he was whisked away. I just happened to be wearing black on a sidewalk in downtown Portland at the time. As The Nations Ken Klippenstein reported, the agency responsible for Pettibones detention was the Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC), a SWAT team-style unit officially charged with responding to terrorist threats.

A number of lawsuits have been filed against the federal government for civil rights violations, and protests that had dwindled to a hundred people or so are now drawing thousands to downtown. Things had been in fact kind of winding downuntil the federal police force or whatever it is, Im still not quite sure, came in and literally blew things up, said Multnomah County Commissioner Sharon Meieran, who joined the demonstrations over the weekend and on Tuesday night. Theyre responding with this horrific amount of force that is causing so much trauma and injury to what had been relatively minor acts of, at the very worst, vandalism of property.

How did a city of 653,000 become the testing ground for what Trump has suggested will be broader interference in US citiespart of an election-year strategy to stoke fear and advance an authoritarian vision of law and order? The groundwork for federal intervention in Portland was laid long before this summers protests by right-wing groups and media, which turned the city into a bogeyman. While Oregon has a legacy of state-sanctioned racism and is still home to a disproportionately large number of hate groups, Portland has also long been the site of antifascist organizing and other left protest movements. (Demonstrations in Portland against George H.W. Bush between 1989 and 1991 were so notorious that a member of the administration dubbed the city Little Beirut.) Extreme groups like the Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer have repeatedly targeted the city over the past few years, holding rallies that inevitably drew counterprotests and created media spectacles.Current Issue

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Demonstrations in Portland immediately following Trumps election in 2016 were huge and, at times, explosive, with police deploying tear gas, flash grenades, and rubber bullets in response. The following year, days after a white supremacist stabbed and killed two people on Portlands light rail, the alt-right group Patriot Prayer held a Trump Free Speech Rally rally; police responded to by detaining hundreds of counterdemonstrators. Similar incidents occurred throughout 2017 and repeatedly in the years since, and conservative media eagerly latched onto a narrative of Portland as lawless anarchist enclave. National Review, for instance, devoted a cover in 2018 to a story by Kevin Williamson in which he described anti-fascist goons and thugs as being in effective control of Portland. In July 2019, clashes between the alt-right and counterdemonstrators drew attention from Trump (Portland is being watched very closely Hopefully the Mayor will be able to properly do his job, he tweeted) and prompted Texas Senator Ted Cruz to call for federal prosecutiona premonition of what was to come.

Portlands drawn the fascination and ire of a lot of right-wing media personalities, fascist groups, neo-Nazi groups, and of course the president, said attorney Juan Chavez, who directs the civil rights project at the Oregon Justice Resource Center and is involved in litigation against the city of Portland regarding treatment of protesters. Were a big enough city to matter but small enough to be a laboratory for a lot of these tactics. And exacerbating this is the way our city government has portrayed protesters in the past, and the way Portland police have portrayed protesters in the past and currently.

City leaders have been sharply critical of the federal response, and have demanded that the Trump administration remove its officers. But Chavez and some activists say that the initial response to citywide protests by local politicians and police helped grease the skids for federal intervention. For weeks, Mayor Ted Wheeler, also serving as police commissioner, did little to restrict the polices use of tear gas and impact munitions against protesters and journalists beyond issuing statements of concern and loose directives with unclear enforcement mechanisms. (A temporary restraining order issued by a federal judge and a new state law restricting tear gas use did eventually put pressure on the bureau to justify its uses of force.) Now, Portland police appear to be coordinating with federal officers to disperse crowds downtown. Portland Police Association President Daryl Turner met with Wolf during his visit to Portland, and in a press conference over the weekend parroted the claim that the city is under siege by rioters.

Basically, you had thousands of people hitting the streets and getting met with tear gas, impact munitions, and harsh police tactics, and that really set the tone for where we were going, said Chavez. I think the city didnt grasp what they were dealing with. There was an immediate political response, that while it came quickly it wasnt adequate. And because of that, basically people did not feel like they had adequate civic feedback on their demands.Related Article

While the city implemented some reforms this yearremoving police from public schools, disbanding the controversial Gun Violence Reduction Team, and reallocating $15 million from the bureaus budgetmany activists wanted a deeper transformation. They ignored us, they did not center victims or protesters, they did nothing to de-escalate, they did nothing to engage, said Teressa Raiford, the founder and executive director of Dont Shoot PDX, which has been organizing for police reform in Portland for years and in June filed a class-action lawsuit against the city for indiscriminate use of tear gas. That is why Donald Trump took advantage of the situation. He knows exactly whats happening here in Oregon. Its a shame. Its disgusting.

Despite the public attention to the demonstrations and apparent public support for the Black Lives Matter movement, Raiford said that immediate safety issues for Black residents are still going unaddressed. On July 10, for instance, an 18-year-old named Shai-India Harris was shot and killed while walking down the street in southeast Portland. Police have not arrested anyone in her case.

Its not clear how all of this will end. Appearing on Fox News on Monday, Wolf said that the DHS was not going to back down. Neither are the protesters. The entire community, the entire city is on our sideeverybody from nurses to teachers to children to parents to families that have lost their loved ones, great grandmas, Raiford said. The most immediate questions concern the extent to which the violence will escalate. Longer term, Chavez wonders about the legal endgame. Can and will the federal courts allow this type of federal invasion of a state? In a lot of ways I think were in uncharted constitutional territory, he said. Even if the courts do act, it may not be fast enough to protect the people who will be out in the streets again tonight.

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Why Portland Became the Test Case for Trumps Secret Police - The Nation

When Patricia and Mark McCloskey stormed out of their lavish St. Louis mansion in a wild-eyed, class-war lather, brandishing guns aimed at nearby Black Lives Matter activists, they committed one of the most risibly deplorable, meme-birthing acts of socio-political optics since U.C. Davis police officer Lt. John Pike pepper-sprayed a seated group of students protesting with the Occupy movement in 2011.

Firearm enthusiasts on Twitter mocked the McCloskeys inexpert gun-handling, and armchair fashion pundits, like myself, couldnt help but notice their chosen uniform for the outburstMarks pink polo shirt and light khakis, and Patricias French boating chemise and capri leggings. When they were inevitably declared the champion Ken and Karen of the summer, they also unwittingly pulled a 202-year-old symbol of American normcore into a national polemic by turning it into the label of the un-woke.

The timing of the St. Louis incident couldnt have been worse, as the company, the countrys oldest apparel brand, filed for bankruptcy shortly thereafter due to a variety of financial and market reasons. Here was another stain on its otherwise crisp chinos, its long-held place in the public consciousness as the definition of fashion safety for the conservative class, now an emblem of toxicity.

Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPIAlamy

The psychology and semiotics of fashion dictate that in times of turmoil, your personal style is especially burdened with the symbolic history of your commercial choices, for good or ill. In the late 1960s, clothing was just one of the aesthetic battlegrounds for the visual opposition of us vs. them, between the John Birch Society and Phyllis Schlafly on the one hand, and the anti-war activists who stopped shaving their armpits and went commando under their ponchos.

Now, the playing field is a lot more complicatedtraditional symbols of conformity or anarchy are being further warped by the participants in the frontlines of the culture wars.

The Hawaiian shirt was once an innocent staple of summer, Margaritaville and endless boogie guitar solos. Now, its caught a case of political COVID and must be quarantined since being co-opted by 8chan gun enthusiasts called Boogaloo Bois, a disparate group of heavily armed anti-government militia-types.

Some of them abhor immigration; some believe there is a white genocide happening, and others are eager to incite a civil war to defend their rights to carry M4 rifles into a Wendys. Reece Jones, an author and a professor at the University of Hawaii, went viral on Twitter earlier with a thread explaining the connection.

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Along with Brooks Brothers and Robin Williams shirts, some previously inoffensive basics of womens fashion have also acquired a suspicious patina. Is a sheath still alright to wear, or a wallpaper print dress for that matter? When worn at the White House lectern by Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, they become something else, implements in a broader campaign of disinformation.

The array of body-con outfits at her briefings suggests at first a Tracy Flick-ish brand of intensity but its as transparent a costume as some of her specious talking points. I will never lie to you, she said during her first appearance in the role. And then, of course, she proceeded to lie straight to the cameras, constantly, as if it was part of a sorority hazing stunt.

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Clothes are not the only politicized aspect of our appearances nownor were they ever; hair is also a prominent battleground. During the French Revolution, Marie Antoinettes signature powdered pouf was copied by the bourgeoisie, but it was reviled by the starving sans-culottes, who saw it as a wasteful indulgence, another representation of her to loucheness and profligacy.

A more modern hairdo once popular with hipsters is the shaved/faded sides and long-on-top look, or grown-out high and tight once favored by everyone from Macklemore to David Beckham. That, too, has been appropriated by far-right figurehead Richard Spencer and his ilk, who have taken to wearing it with Brooks Brothers suits, because Nazis used to wear the hairdo to look tidy under their helmets.

The New York Times once dubbed it the Hitler Youth, but it has since gone on to be nicknamed the Fashy Haircutshort for fascist, natchand some of its adherents seem blithely unaware of the politics telegraphed by their coiffure. In 2016, the Washington Post once noted the irony of white nationalists sporting a hairstyle thats already been repurposed in the 21st century by young people whose ethos is radical safe-space inclusiveness, not ethnophobic separatism with eugenic undertones.

In the context of today, that misdirection is precisely the point. The alt-right has intentionally become more sophisticated about blending in, substituting red tank tops and MAGA hats with more ambivalent iconography, the kind of fungible avatars that can be taken at face value, or interpreted as dog whistles if weaponized.

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Arguably, another head of hair that looks suspect in the current climate is worn by perennially corporate hyper-conservatives like Jared Kushner. Its the third-grade-picture-day, combover haircut that announces you have a turtle in your lunchbox and get to wear big boy pants because you havent wet the bed in weeks. Its hair that looks excessively Boy Scouty and feckless precisely because it isnt, like when predatory octopods camouflage themselves by mimicking the ocean floor.

For maximum due diligence, ask yourself a few difficult questions before opting for the old standbys when getting dressed for your next Zoomtinis. Remember that something that looks safe on the surface rarely is. We must all make sacrifices during times of (culture) war, but dressing in flip flops and pajama bottoms is arguably better than walking out of your house looking like you want to annex the Sudetenland.

The McCloskeys, by the way, are looking at a possible felony for what the Circuit Attorneys Office in St. Louis called unlawful use of a gun in an angry or threatening manner. The fashion police, however, has not yet pressed charges, though a guilty verdict seems like a foregone conclusion.

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How Brooks Brothers Became a Symbol of What Not to Wear to the Revolution - TownandCountrymag.com

Elon Musk is no stranger to controversy.

Aside from making billions of dollars and (hopefully) living on Mars one day, Musks primary occupation seems to be infuriating people up on Twitter.

A prime example of this happened in back May when Musk tweeted the cryptic message take the red pill.

Musks tweet caused huge backlash, including from Matrix director Lily Wachowski, who replied in a colourful way...

Why was this such a big deal?

On a basic level, taking the red pill (or the blue pill, for the matter) is a reference to the moment in The Matrix when Neo must choose between swallowing the hard truth in the form of the red pill, or take the blue pill and remain in a state of blissful ignorance. (Spoiler: he takes the red pill)

The concept of 'taking the red pill' has struck a chord with everyone from leftists to "men's rights" activists.

But the meme is well known for its association with the alt-right.

To the group of hardcore conservatives who primarily communicate via websites like 4chan and Reddit, being "redpilled" in means rejecting previously held leftist social ideals and accepting a world view which is heavily socially conservative. To some, taking the red pill means accepting white supremacy, while to others it means realising that they live in a world that favours women over men.

There is no single definition of what being redpilled means, even amongst the alt-right. For instance, whilst it has been linked to racist ideologies, American conservative Candace Owens runs a YouTube channel called Red Pill Black, where she espouses conservatism for African-Americans.

So was Musk's tweet an endorsement of the alt-right, Republicans or Trump?

People certainly seemed to take it that way at the time. Grimess mother (a Canadian journalist) called him out on Twitter, and Trumps daughter Ivanka gleefully accepted what she perceived as an endorsement.

But now Musk has confirmed that his red pill tweet was not an endorsement of Trump or any political agenda.

In an interview with the New York Times, Musk said that he did not have a political message behind the tweet:

No, its just: Accept reality as it is as opposed to what you wish it were.

On Ivankas quote-tweet, he said:

I think she was interpreting it through more of a political lens then it was intended.

This will no doubt be a blow for Trump, who has been complimentary of Musk, even describing him as one of our great geniuses. Musk sat on business advisory councils for Trump early in his administration but left once he removed America from the Paris climate agreement.

Musk tends to change his mind a fair bit when it comes to politics. Last week he threw his support behind Kanye West's bizarre campaign, before appearing to backtrack after West made several anti-abortion and anti-vaxx comments.

Anyway, Trump has until November to secure Musk's vote, so there's still time for an actual Twitter endorsement. And if 2020's shown us anything, it's to expect the unexpected.

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Elon Musk has finally confirmed whether his take the red pill tweet was a Trump endorsement - indy100

Tucker Carlson is capable of only two facial expressions. One is a deeply furrowed brow that narrows his eyes to a point at which they almost disappear, not dissimilar to the face a child makes when they are angry, or lost, or both. He uses this expression when he is describing the point of view of someone with whom he disagrees. The other is a wide-eyed look of pleading which sends his eyebrows at least an inch in the other direction. It is an expression meant to portray logic and reason, of why-do-you-hate-America indignity. He uses it chiefly when describing his own views and solutions to the problems facing the country.

All of this is to say that if eyes are windows to the soul, Carlsons spirit is black and white. He is a binary man whose whole career has been defined by his opposition to, and his apparent hatred of, other people and ideas. And at a time when America is more polarised than ever, he is having a moment.

Tucker Carlson Tonight, his daily show on Fox News, became the highest-rated programme of all cable news over the last quarter, with an average audience of 4.3 million viewers. His voice bounces off the walls in the White House residence each evening, where the president is an avid watcher. Republican strategists have encouraged him to mount his own run for the most powerful office in the world.

Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

The upcoming election has a real possibility of making Trump a one-term president, and conservatives are already looking for a vessel to keep Trumpism alive. Could Tucker Carlson, a man whose fortunes have risen in tandem with Trumps, outlast him?

*****

Carlsons breakout television role was not so different to what he does today. In the early 2000s, he played the voice of the right on CNNs Crossfire, a show that pitched liberals against conservatives in gladiatorial nightly debates. The format first aired in the 1980s and was revived when Carlson was brought in to do battle with alternating hosts from the left, Paul Begala and James Carville.

The show was emblematic of the growing trend in cable news at the time to chase ratings by setting up fights between their guests it was Punch and Judy punditry. It worked for a while, but viewers soon grew tired of it. The issue came to a head in an infamous appearance on the show in October 2005 by Jon Stewart, who took Begala and Carlson to task for their performative and partisan on-air fights, accusing them of hurting America.

Youre doing theatre, when you should be doing debate, he told them, to applause from Crossfires own audience. Here is what I wanted to tell you guys: stop. You have a responsibility to the public discourse, and you fail miserably.

That show was seen as a turning point. When it was cancelled three months later, Jonathan Klein, then-president of CNN, said he sympathised with Stewarts arguments.

Carlson was 35 when the show was canned. The Stewart dressing down was described by one YouTube commenter as Carlsons villain origin story, perhaps in recognition of the transformation he undertook over the next few years.

Following a three-year stint at MSNBC, during which his show was plagued by low ratings, Carlson co-founded the Daily Caller, a news website pitched as the conservative answer to Huffington Post.

No hype, just the advice and analysis you need

It was during his time as editor-in-chief of the Daily Caller that Carlson began to draw accusations of having sympathy for nationalist and white supremacist ideas. It would become a common theme in his career from here on out: Carlson would always deny harbouring these views himself, but would continually find himself in the company of people who did.

His association with the nationalist fringe became more pronounced with Donald Trumps ascendancy to the presidency. In 2017, the Southern Poverty Law Centre a non-profit that monitors the activities of domestic hate groups and other extremists wrote that the Daily Caller has a white nationalist problem.

Throughout the 2016 election and since, the Daily Caller has not only published the work of white nationalists, but some of its writers have routinely whitewashed the Alt-Right, while one editor there is an associate of key Alt-Right figures, the report said.

The Daily Callers embrace of white nationalists reflects the resurgence of the nationalist right, ethno and otherwise, represented by President Trump. Trumps campaign and Electoral College victory electrified the radical right and pulled the Overton Window further in their direction, it went on.

Carlson was still involved with the Daily Caller when he had his debut on the Fox News show that he still hosts today. Introducing the first episode on November 14, 2016, Carlson said he wanted to challenge people on their power, pierce pomposity, crush smugness.

And yet, he promptly started going after the party and associated establishment figures that had just lost power in a general election, along with the media, the deep state, and anyone but the most powerful man in the most powerful office in the world.

Like the Daily Caller, one of the shows primary themes was white grievance, a theme that continued to win him fans among white nationalists.

Will Carless, a journalist who covers extremism for the investigative site Reveal, co-authored an investigation into Carlsons influence on and relationship with the alt-right and white supremacists online. The 2018 report found widespread support for Carlson on websites and forums associated with hate speech.

Tucker Carlson claims senator who lost both legs in Iraq hates America

As our reporting showed, Tucker Carlson, more than any other major news personality, has been instrumental in bringing fringe ideas to the mainstream, Carless told The Independent.

Hes revered for that in some of the most vile corners of the internet, where racists and other extremists see him as their useful idiot, someone with huge reach who seems ever-willing to flirt with their hateful ideas.

Carlsons stock response to accusations of sympathy for white supremacists is indignation. Fox News did not provide comment when approached by The Independent.

Im not responsible for your views or the views of any other human being Im responsible for mine, he told Reveal in response to its investigation. Youre trying, quite transparently, to smear me with the views of people I have nothing to do with.

But the racism and the bigotry is not always so far detached. This month, his top writer, Blake Neff, was revealed by CNN to have been posting racist and sexist comments to an online forum for years.

CNN wrote that there has at times also been overlap between some material he posted or saw on the forum and Carlsons show. Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott and President Jay Wallace condemned horrific racist, misogynistic and homophobic behaviour.

Tucker Carlson Tonight is not so different to Crossfire, in that each night Carlson attempts to tear down a liberal position. But instead of debating another person, he argues against the most bad-faith interpretation of his opponents ideas.

In the early days of the show, he was fond of entertaining a theory that Trumps election was a blow to the corrupt elite, but that it still lurked in the background ready to rob hard-working middle-class Americans of their victory. This framing allowed the wealthy, privately educated heir to a large fortune (Carlsons stepmother is an heiress to the Swanson frozen food empire), avid supporter of the most powerful man in the world, to portray himself as an anti-establishment figure. In those shows he acted as a kind of anger translator for the syntactically challenged president. He would mock outraged reactions from the left to Trumps abuses of power.

The dog-whistle politics of Carlsons show has been a constant. But the 51-year-old father-of-four has grown increasingly fond of accusing those with whom he disagrees of hating America.

A recent segment on Tammy Duckworth, a Democratic senator from Illinois and a former US Army lieutenant colonel who lost both of her legs in Iraq, was a classic example.

Carlson took issue with a suggestion by Duckworth, whose name has been mentioned as a possible running mate for Joe Biden, that there should be a national dialogue over the removal of statues dedicated to historical figures with links to slavery, such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

Its long been considered out of bounds to question a persons patriotism, said Carlson. Its a very strong charge, and we try not ever to make it. But in the face of all of this, the conclusion cant be avoided. These people actually hate America. Theres no longer a question about that.

If eyes are windows to the soul, Tucker Carlsons is black and white

The attack prompted Biden campaign spokesperson TJ Ducklo to respond. Tucker Carlson and his colleagues who traffic in hate speech masquerading as journalism are accomplices to Donald Trumps perverse mission to use division and bitterness to tear this country apart, he said.

Ilhan Omar, the first Muslim woman elected to Congress, also hates America, according to Carlson. She is a regular target on the show.

Virtually every public statement she makes accuses Americans of bigotry and racism, he said in a recent tirade. This is an immoral country, she says. She has undisguised contempt for the United States and for its people.

He also regularly attacks Omars fellow freshman congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on one occasion calling her a moron and nasty, excoriating her for allegedly casting herself as a revolutionary while having had a comfortable upbringing.

There is indeed an aura of hate around Carlson, but most of it seems to emanate from him. It is directed towards anyone who doesnt look and think like Tucker Carlson, a side of America that is perhaps unfamiliar to him, but which is no less American.

Its a sign of the extremes to which Carlson has fallen that he attributes these unpatriotic feelings to Elmo, the beloved Sesame Street character. Carlson took issue with a segment on the show in which the puppet addressed the Black Lives Matter protests and tried to explain the issues behind them to his young audience.

Its a childrens show. Got that, Bobby?, Carlson said. America is a very bad place and its your fault, so no matter what happens, no matter what they do to you when you grow up, you have no right to complain.

Thats the message and it starts very young, he added, with his brow furrowed.

*****

A national reckoning over racial injustice sparked by the police killing of George Floyd might have been a humbling moment for Carlson. As the demonstrations spread to every corner of the country, polls showed a shift in support for the Black Lives Matter movement among the public.

At the same time, the public appeared to sour on President Trump and his handling of the protests, as he responded with calls to dominate the streets and displayed little enthusiasm to address the underlying causes of the anger.

Interestingly, however, this is where Carlson and the presidents fortunes differed. While Trumps ratings plummeted, Carlson seemed to find his voice. It might seem counterintuitive for a man who claimed racism doesnt exist in America to gain viewers at a time when the country seemed to be waking up to the idea that it very much did, but Carlson attracted even more viewers by pushing fears over the protests.

Carlsons show was dominated by images of fire and brimstone. The protesters were criminal mobs, the demonstrations were a form of tyranny and a threat to every American, according to Carlson.

Even as the protests calmed down and violence gave way to largely peaceful mass demonstrations, Carlsons backdrop remained on fire. It was us versus them.

On television, hour by hour, we watch these people criminal mobs destroy what the rest of us have built, he said during one nightly monologue.

People like this dont bother to work. They dont volunteer or pay taxes to help other people. They live for themselves. They do exactly what they feel like doing. They say exactly what they feel like saying.

There was little attempt to understand the grievances of the protesters, preferring instead to stoke the fears of his viewers by telling them they were in danger.

This may be a lot of things, this moment were living through, but it is definitely not about black lives, Carlson said. And remember that when they come for you and at this rate, they will.

It was Tucker Carlson at this angriest and most unhinged, and the ratings went up.

The president, who came to power by stoking us-and-them divisions, often takes his cues from Carlsons show. He watches it regularly and often models the White House agenda based on the shows topics.

A group of moms stands between federal agents and demonstrators during a Portland protest

REUTERS

A group of moms link arms to stand between federal officers and demonstrators in Portland. The call themselves the 'Wall of Moms'

REUTERS

Teal Lindseth reacts to tear gas after federal officers dispersed protesters from in front of the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse in Portland, Oregon

Getty Images

Federal officers disperse protesters at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse in Portland, Oregon, during demonstrations in favour of racial justice and against militarised federal officers making arrests

AP

A protester flies an American flag while walking through tear gas fired by federal officers during a protest in front of the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse in Portland, Oregon

Getty Images

A federal officer pepper sprays a protester in front of the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse in Portland, Oregon

Getty Images

Federal police disperse a crowd of about a thousand protesters at the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse in Portland, Oregon

Getty

Federal officers use crowd control munitions to disperse Black Lives Matter protesters outside the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse in Portland, Oregon

AP

A protester reacts to milk poured on his eyes after being tear gassed during a protest against racial inequality in Portland, Oregon

REUTERS

A Black Lives Matter protester carries an American flag as teargas fills the air outside the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse in Portland, Oregon

AP

Orion Crabb holds his head back while a medic rinses tear gas from his eyes after federal officers dispersed a crowd of about 1,000 protesters from in front of the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse in Portland, Oregon

Getty Images

Federal officers use crowd control munitions to disperse Black Lives Matter protesters in Portland, Oregon

AP

A protester kicks in temporary boarding at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse in Portland, Oregon

AP

A protester holds his hands in the air while walking past a group of federal officers during a protest in front of the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse in Portland, Oregon

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Hundreds of Black Lives Matter protesters hold their phones aloft during a demonstration in Portland, Oregon, where militarised federal police have been arresting demonstrators

AP

Federal police walk through tear gas while dispersing a crowd of about a thousand protesters at the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse in Portland, Oregon

Getty Images

KaCe Freeman chants during a Black Lives Matter protest outside the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse in Portland, Oregon

AP

A group of moms stands between federal agents and demonstrators during a Portland protest

REUTERS

A group of moms link arms to stand between federal officers and demonstrators in Portland. The call themselves the 'Wall of Moms'

REUTERS

Teal Lindseth reacts to tear gas after federal officers dispersed protesters from in front of the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse in Portland, Oregon

Getty Images

Federal officers disperse protesters at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse in Portland, Oregon, during demonstrations in favour of racial justice and against militarised federal officers making arrests

AP

A protester flies an American flag while walking through tear gas fired by federal officers during a protest in front of the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse in Portland, Oregon

Getty Images

A federal officer pepper sprays a protester in front of the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse in Portland, Oregon

Excerpt from:
Does Tucker Carlson hate America? - The Independent

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- For Americans, the stakes in the November election are huge. For Europeans, they may be even bigger.

Thats an exaggeration, but only slightly. Since May 9, 1945, the U.S. has kept the peace and prosperity on the continent, which in the previous three decades had set off wars that killed more than 100 million people. The Europeans themselves deserve immense credit for finally getting off of each others throatsand forming a series of trade and legislativeorganizations that reached its apogee as the European Union.However, as my Bloomberg Opinion colleague Niall Ferguson wrote on July 19: Europeans like to give the EU credit for the fact Europe is no longer the worlds number one battlefield, but Americans understand that it has been the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the presence of U.S. troops that have really kept the peace.They are rightly proud of that achievement.

Theres not been so much to be proud oflately. The U.S. is clearly the side dragging the transatlantic relationship into the mire. President Donald Trumps words (insultingEuropean leaders,fawning over dictators) and actions (ordering U.S. troops withdrawn from Germany,slapping tariffs on everything from airplane parts to single-malt whiskies) have placed 75years of shared success at risk. How serious is it?To answer that question, I talked to someone witha foot on either side of the ocean:Anne Applebaum, whose latest book is titled,Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism.A longtime fixture in Washington foreign-policy circles, first as a columnist at the Washington Post and currently atthe Atlantic, Applebaum lives in Poland with her husband,Radek Sikorski, who was that nations foreign minister from 2007 to 2014.Here is a lightly edited transcript of our discussion:Tobin Harshaw: Lets start with the $850 billion European Recovery Fund that EU leaders hashed out this week. There were people talking about this as the continents Hamilton Moment. Do you see an eventual United States of Europe?

Anne Applebaum: One of the oddities about the EU is that for all the complaining that its overbearing and that it's telling people what to do, its central structures are really quite weak at least outside of trade, the one area where members have seen it as in their interests to cede power to the European Commission. But the EU doesn't have the ability to run a proper fiscal policy, let alone a foreign policy or defense policy. Because of that, it has a very weak voice in the world.

I dont think we need a United States of Europe, but I would like to see the EU play a bigger role in geopolitics, to represent a set of values, in opposition to the values of Russia and China. I would like it to think about projecting stability and prosperity into its neighboring regions Eastern Europe, North Africa and to play a bigger role in international institutions.

But it is also true that it has to get there through means of consensus and so thats going to take a long time, if it ever happens.

TH: How much desire do Europeans have for that?

AA: It depends whom you ask, and when. But don't underestimate the desire of millions of Europeans for Europe to have a bigger voice in the world. As 27 separate countries, they arent really heard, and there are many who would like that to change.

TH: Do you think that a tighter fiscal union would be the driver in all this?

AA: It may well be that a tighter fiscal union would transfer more power to the European collective, that shared monetary instruments will be the tool that brings countries together. Personally, I would prefer that the EU consolidate around foreign and defense policy, but Europe integrates thanks to crises, and this is the one that we have at the moment.

TH: Governments like those in Poland and Hungary what we call the illiberal regimes are driving a wedge into Europe. Is the illiberal movement an anomaly or a long-term trend?

AA: Its a long-term trend. Hungary is no longer a democracy. I don't believe an opposition political party can win a national election in Hungary the playing field is too tilted. Note that Hungary is now doing deals with Russia and China; I believe the prime minister, Viktor Orban, knows he could eventually wind up outside of the European Union.

TH: And Poland?AA: Poland is more complicated. There are reasons to believe that democracy can be preserved the opposition is very large, independent media still exist, the economy is big and diverse although we'll see what happens over the next three years. But Polands destruction of judicial independence may pose an even greater problem for the EU, which needs its member states to have reliable courts for all kinds of business reasons as well as political reasons. European companies and people need to have faith in the idea that courts will treat you fairly. Polish courts are in danger of no longer meeting that standard.

TH: Are there tangible connections between these countries that have turned illiberal and the populist movements in Western Europe?

AA: Yes. There are connections between the Hungarian ruling party, the Polish ruling party, the far-right in Italy, the far right in France and to a lesser extent the far-right in Spain. All of them have links to the U.S. too, to the Trumpist part of the Republican Party, as well as the online alt-right.

Some of the links are personal: the party members and leaders meet one another and go to conferences together. There are also connections between their followers online. They copy one anothers posts and promote one anothers ideas. They will often fixate, as a group, on one particular incident; after the Notre Dame firelast year, many began posting and tweeting about alleged Muslim responsibility, or using the fire as a symbol for the supposed destruction of Christianity.

TH: There's probably no way to quantify the damage that Trump has done to the transatlantic alliance. But how fixable is it?Or is it permanent?

AA: The idea that America would always be a voice for democracy and for freedom, the idea that America would always be a reliable ally for Europeans as well as Americas partners in Asia is probably gone forever.

TH: Wow. Thats quite a statement.

AA: Of course President Joe Biden would seek to revive these alliances. But unless there's a major change inside the Republican party unless, post-Trump, it is taken over again by people who seem to have genuine interest in America's alliances around the world then I think there will always be the fear, another lost election and we lose America again.

For many, many decades, U.S. foreign policy has maintained a bipartisan consensus around a few issues, and one of them was the alliance with Europe. If that is no longer the case, if the Republican Party is no longer interested in alliances, then Europeans will rightly see that one of the political parties favors them and the other one doesn't, and that it is time to start planning a world without the U.S.

Its beginning to happen already. French President Emmanuel Macron is arguing for a deeper and more integrated Europe partly because he wants Europe to prepare for a world in which the U.S. is, if not hostile, then no longer a friend.

TH: In that case, is there a future for Republicans and conservatives who want to engage with the world and promote democracy so-called Never Trumpers?

AA: It depends on what happens in the election not just whether Trump loses, but how he loses. I think if he loses quite badly, if the Republicans lose the Senate, then perhaps there's a chance for a different kind of Republican leadership to emerge.

If Trump wins, or if he loses but only by a little bit, then Don Jr. or Tucker Carlson or someone else who wants to continue Trumps nationalist politics may well take over.

TH: I'massuming you were being sarcastic about Donald Trump Jr. and Tucker Carlson.

AA: No. Tucker Carlson concerns me a lot Trump was proof that you don't have to be a politician to become the party leader or to become president. Now other celebrities will seek to use their popularity and their Facebook followings in politics.

TH: Finally, I had one personal question for you. I'm wondering how being married to a prominent Polish politician complicates your role in writing about these things, and how do you keep your home life and your journalism separate?

AA: This is the main reason why I wrote Twilight of Democracy the way I did. It is not a magisterial political science treatise about illiberalism in Europe and America, its not a piece of third-person reporting or an objective history.Its written in the first person, it includes some elements of memoir or my own experiences and it really tries to explain what my biases might be precisely because I am part of the story.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Tobin Harshaw is an editor and writer on national security and military affairs for Bloomberg Opinion. He was an editor with the op-ed page of the New York Times and the papers letters editor.

2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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The November Election Could Not Be Bigger for Europe - BNN