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AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. Im Amy Goodman, with Juan Gonzlez.

JUAN GONZLEZ: President Trump is facing widespread criticism for his latest comments on the deadly white supremacist protest in Charlottesville, Virginia. Speaking at Trump Tower Tuesday, Trump said the violence was in part caused by what he called the "alt-left."

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: OK, what about the "alt-left" that came charging atexcuse me. What about the "alt-left"? They came charging at the, as you say, the alt-right? Do they have any semblance of guilt? Whatlet me ask you this: What about the fact they came chargingthat they came charging with clubs in their hands, swinging clubs? Do they have any problem? I think they do. So, you know, as far as Im concerned, that was a horrible, horrible day. Wait a minute, Im not finished. Im not finished, fake news. That was a horrible day.

REPORTER: Mr. President, are you putting what youre calling the "alt-left" and white supremacists on the same moral plane?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Im not putting anybody on a moral plane. What Im saying is this: You had a group on one side, and you had a group on the other, and they came at each other with clubs, and it was vicious, and it was horrible, and it was a horrible thing to watch. But there is another side. There was a group on this sideyou can call them the left, youve just called them the leftthat came violently attacking the other group. So you can say what you want, but thats the way it is.

AMY GOODMAN: President Trumps comments were widely decried. Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney tweeted, "No, not the same. One side is racist, bigoted, Nazi. The other opposes racism and bigotry. Morally different universes," unquote. Earlier this week, Cornel West appeared on Democracy Now!. He painted a very different picture of Charlottesville than President Trump, saying anarchists and anti-fascists saved his life.

CORNEL WEST: Absolutely. You had a number of the courageous students, of all colors, at the University of Virginia who were protesting against the neofascists themselves. The neofascists had their own ammunition. And this is very important to keep in mind, because the police, for the most part, pulled back. The next day, for example, those 20 of us who were standing, many of them clergy, we would have been crushed like cockroaches if it were not for the anarchists and the anti-fascists who approached, over 300, 350 anti-fascists. We just had 20. And were singing "This Little light of Mine," you know what I mean? So that the

AMY GOODMAN: "Antifa" meaning anti-fascist.

CORNEL WEST: The anti-fascists, and then, crucial, the anarchists, because they saved our lives, actually. We would have been completely crushed, and Ill never forget that.

AMY GOODMAN: To look more at the anti-fascist movement, known as antifa, were joined by Mark Bray, lecturer at Dartmouth College. His new book, Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook.

First, pronounce it for us, Mark, and then talk about antifa.

MARK BRAY: Yes, well, its pronounced on-tee-fah. The emphasis is on the first syllable, and its pronounced more on than an, so on-tee-fah. Its commonly mispronounced. But antifa, of course, is short for anti-fascist.

And, you know, President Trumps comments that the altquote-unquote, "alt-left" and alt-right are equivalent moral forces is really historically misinformed and morally bankrupt. The anti-fascist movement has a global history that stretches back overabout a century. You can trace them to Italian opposition to Mussolinis Blackshirts, German opposition to Hitlers Brownshirts, anti-fascists from around the world who had traveled to Spain to fight in the Spanish Civil War. More recently, modern antifa can largely trace its roots to the anti-fascist movement in Britain in the 70s, and the postwar period more generally, that was responding to a xenophobic backlash against predominantly Caribbean and South Asian migration, also to the German autonomous movement of the 80s, which, really, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, had to respond to a really unprecedented neo-Nazi waveunprecedented in the postwar period, of course.

And then, in the United States, we can look at anti-racist action in the 1980s, 1990s and the early 2000s, which took some of these methods of confronting neo-Nazis and fascists wherever they assemble, shutting down their organizing and, as they said, going where they go. Today, in an article I wrote for The Washington Post called "Who are the antifa?" I explain this and show how todays antifa in the United States are really picking up the tradition where these groups left off. And their movement has really accelerated with the unfortunate ascendance of the alt-right following President Trump.

The other minor note I want to make before we continue is that antifa is really only one faction of a larger movement against white supremacy that dates back centuries and includes a whole numberthere are a whole number of groups that fight against similar foes, sometimes using the same methods, that arent necessarily anti-fascists. So, its important not to subsume the entire anti-racist movement within this sort of one category.

JUAN GONZLEZ: And, Mark Bray, in your bookand I want to quote a few lines from ityou say, "Most people have an 'all-or-nothing' understanding of fascism that prevents them from taking fascists seriously until they seize power. ... Very few really believe that there is any serious chance of a fascistic regime ever materializing in America." And Im wondering about that and the importance of understanding that concept of yours, for those who are looking at whats happening today in America.

MARK BRAY: Right. So, the way people understand fascism, or the way theyve been taught about it, is generally exclusively in terms of regimes. So, the thought goes, as long as we have parliamentary government, were safe. But we can look back to the historical examples of Italy and Germany and see that, unfortunately, parliamentary government was insufficient to prevent the stopto prevent the rise of fascism and Nazism, and actually provided a red carpet to their advance. So, because of that reason, people think of fascism in terms of all or nothing, regime or nothing.

But we can see in Charlottesville that any amount of neo-Nazi organizing, any amount of a fascist presence, is potentially fatal. And, unfortunately, Heather Heyer paid the price for that. So thats partly why anti-fascists argue that fascism must be nipped in the bud from the beginning, that any kind of organizing needs to be confronted and responded to. Even if, you know, people are spending most of their time on Twitter making jokes, its still very serious and needs to be confronted.

AMY GOODMAN: Can youcan you talk aboutI mean, very interesting, during the South Carolina protests against the white supremacists, there were flags of Republicans in Spain fighting Franco.

MARK BRAY: Right. So, one of the most iconic moments in anti-fascist history is the Spanish Civil War, and, from an international perspective, the role of the International Brigades, brave anti-fascists who came from dozens of countries around the world to stand up to Francos forces. Franco had the institutional support of Nazi Germany and Mussolinis Italy, whereas the Republican side really only had support of the Soviet Union, which, as I discuss in my book, had a lot of problematic aspects to it. So, if we look at the role of the International Brigades, we can see that anti-fascists view their struggle as transnational and transhistorical. And so, today, if you go to an anti-fascist demonstration in Spain, for example, the flag of the International Brigades, the flag of the Spanish Republic is ubiquitous. And these symbols, even the double flags of anti-fascism that people will frequently see at demonstrations, often one being red, one being black, was originally developed as a German symbol, which, in its earliest incarnation, dates back to the 1930s. So, its important to look at antifa not just as sort of a random thought experiment that some crazy kids came up with to respond to the far right, but rather a tradition that dates back a century.

JUAN GONZLEZ: You also talk, in your examples, of other countries, not only the period of the 1930s and 40s, but more recent periods, in England in the 80s, and in Greece, as well, even more recently, and the importance of direct action by anti-fascists to nip in the bud or to beat back the rise of fascist movements.

MARK BRAY: Right. So, part of what I try to do with my book, Antifa, is draw certain historical lessons from the early period of anti-fascist struggle that can be applied to the struggle today. One of them is that it doesnt take a lot of organized fascists to sometimes develop a really powerful movement. We can see that recently with the rise of Golden Dawn, the fascist party in Greece, which, prior to the financial crisis, was really a tiny micro-party and considered a joke by most. Subsequently, they became a major party in Greek politics and a major threat, a violent, deadly threat, to migrants and leftists and people of all stripes across Greek society. This was also true back in the early part of the 20th century, when Mussolinis initial fascist nucleus was a hundred people. When Hiller first attended his first meeting of the German Workers Party, which he later transformed into the Nazi Party, they had 54 members. So, we need to see that theres always a potential for small movements to become large.

And one of the other lessons of the beginning of the 20th century is that people did not take fascism and Nazism seriously until it was too late. That mistake will never be made again by anti-fascists, who will recognize that any manifestation of these politics is dangerous and needs to be confronted as if it could be the nucleus of some sort of deadly movement or regime of the future.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted you to talk, Mark Bray, about the presence of Stephen Bannon and Sebastian Gorka and Stephen Miller in the White House and what that means to antifa, to the anti-fascist movement.

MARK BRAY: Right. Well, the other side of it is its not just about how many people are part of fascist or neo-Nazi groups. Its also about the fact that far-right politics have the ability to infiltrate and influence and direct mainstream politics. And we can see that with the alt-right. The alt-right is not really actually a lot of people in terms of numbers, but theyve had a disproportionate influence on the Trump administration and certain aspects of public discourse. So, the presence of Bannon and Gorka and Miller in the White House really just gives some sort of a hint as to why it is that Trump yesterday basically said there are good people on both sides of this conflict, that Friday night, when there were neo-Nazis wielding torches in Nazi style and they attacked nonviolent UVA student protesters, that he said, "Oh, well, you know, these are good people."

So, part of it is the organized street presence, but, as we saw, by confronting the organized street presence in Charlottesville, this created the question of just how bad these people are, becauseyou played earlier, Mitt Romney condemned the fact that there could be blame ascribed to both sides. Well, prior to Charlottesville, that was the dominant media narrative. Most mainstream media was saying, "Oh, well, we have, quote-unquote, 'violence' on both sides. Hands up. Whos to say whos right or wrong?" But by confronting this, by putting it in the spotlight, by shining a light on what these people really think, its shifted the public discourse and pushed back the ability of some of these alt-right figures to try and cloak their fascism.

JUAN GONZLEZ: And what do you say, for instance, to those who maybe are opposed to the viewpoints of the white nationalists and white supremacists, but also attempt to condemn any attempts to shut themshut them down or not allow them to speak? Orand, obviously, the American Civil Liberties Union fought for the right of the Charlottesvillethe white nationalists to have their rally in Charlottesville.

MARK BRAY: Right. Well, the question of how to combat fascism, I think, always needs to come back to discussions of the 1930s and 1940s. So, clearly, we can see that rational discourse and debate was insufficient. Clearly, we can see that the mechanisms of parliamentary government were insufficient. We need to be able to come up with a way to say, "How can we make sure never again?" By any means necessary, this can never happen again. And the people back there who witnessed these atrocities committed themselves to that.

So the question is: OK, if you dont think that its appropriate to physically confront and to stand in front of neo-Nazis who are trying to organize for another genocide now, do you do it after someone has died, as they just did? Do you do it after a dozen people have died? Do you do it once theyre at the footsteps of power? At what point? At what point do you say, "Enough is enough," and give up on the liberal notion that what we need to do is essentially create some sort of a regime of rights that allow neo-Nazis and their victims to coexist, quote-unquote, "peacefully," and recognize that the neo-Nazis dont want that and that also the anti-fascists are right in not looking at it through that liberal lens, but rather seeing fascism not as an opinion that needs to be responded to respectfully, but as an enemy to humanity that needs to be stopped by any means necessary?

AMY GOODMAN: This is Part 1 of our conversation, Mark Bray. Well do Part 2 and post it online at democracynow.org. Mark Bray is the author of a book that is coming out in the next few weeks called Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook. He is a lecturer at Dartmouth College.

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Antifa: A Look at the Anti-Fascist Movement Confronting White Supremacists in the Streets - Democracy Now!

Planet Jackson Hole

DEMOCRACY IN CRISIS: The Shattering of America Planet Jackson Hole How the events unfolded at the site of a potential domestic terrorist attack in Charlottesville. JACKSON HOLE, WY Two middle-aged men, one black and one white, were walking a street in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia, yelling at each other. It was ... and more »

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DEMOCRACY IN CRISIS: The Shattering of America - Planet Jackson Hole

A democracy activist who claimed he was kidnapped and tortured by mainland Chinese agents in Hong Kong was charged on Wednesday night with misleading police after his story unravelled during their hunt for evidence.

Howard Lam Tsz-kins case will be heard in Kowloon City Court on Thursday morning, but he will not make an appearance as he remains in hospital after complaining of feeling unwell.

Lam held a press conference last week claiming that he was pushed into a van in Yau Ma Tei on Thursday afternoon by Putonghua-speaking men who took him to an unknown location, punched staples into his legs and dumped him on a beach in Sai Kung from where he made his own way home in a taxi.We received a report concerning unlawful detention, criminal intimidation and wounding. These are very serious allegations, acting police commissioner Alan Lau Yip-shing said on Wednesday.

These are very serious allegations

Acting police commissioner Alan Lau Yip-shing

But from our investigation result so far, we found these reports made by the informant were not correct. What he said to us did not comply with what we discovered.

Earlier on Wednesday, officers recovered a bloodstained tissue and a cigarette packet while hunting for evidence at a beach in Sai Kung.

Dozens of detectives and Police Tactical Unit officers combed the area after CCTV footage showed Lam travelling to the location on his own, instead of being taken there by kidnappers, as he had earlier claimed.

Officers were also searching for a stapler and other items linked to the case.

Lam was arrested on suspicion of misleading police at 12:30am on Tuesday.

The Democratic Party member remained in a detention ward at Queen Elizabeth Hospital on Wednesday after he complained of feeling sick at about midnight at Hung Hom police station, where he was being detained for questioning.

A police insider said he was in a stable condition, but would spend another night in hospital because of a serious headache.

When being detained at the police station, he complained about having an acid reflux and a serious headache and requested medical treatment, the source said. He has remained silent under questioning with his lawyer present.

Around 50 police officers searched for evidence on Tai Mong Tsai Road and a surrounding beach in Sai Kung in the morning, as CCTV footage showed that Lam took a minibus from Mong Kok to Sai Kung and that he appeared in Tai Mong Tsai at around 6pm. Footage also revealed that he walked to a beach outside Luna House on the road on his own the beach that he claimed was where his abductors had dumped him.

If he had stayed in the area for long hours, he must have left some clues or traces in the area, the source said. We are looking for items related to the case maybe a stapler, packing paper or clothes.

The Post reported earlier that the force might look into Lams mental health, as he suffered from depression and had attempted suicide in the past. Investigators suspected he might have harmed himself instead of being tortured.

Detectives found the crosses stapled onto the activists thighs had been punched in so neatly, without any scratches or other bruises, that they doubted his claim his abductors had held him down against his will to punish him for intending to send a photograph signed by soccer star Lionel Messi to the wife of the late Chinese dissident, Liu Xiaobo.

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Hong Kong democracy activist charged with misleading police over kidnap claim - South China Morning Post

Evil arrived in Charlottesville this past weekend when white nationalists and Neo-Nazis terrorized this quiet college town. Lives were lost, many injured and hate was on full display and the President could only muster a tepid response about many sides which is a false moral equivalency. I honestly cant believe Im living in 2017 and after each egregious step of the Trump presidency I ask myself; is this what democracy looks like?

Even though racism is on the rise, perverted untruths are unloaded daily and fire and fury rhetoric is now common place, yes, I believe this is what democracy looks like. Our democracy is terrifying but at the same time this sort of beautiful chaos with the checks and balances of our government in full flex. This gives me hope.

We are seeing signs our democracy is working as it was designed to combat against destructive forces. Politicians are finding their profile in courage moments and listening to their constituents. People are organizing and attending town halls nationwide. Congress has made it impossible for Trump to fire the Attorney General or stop the Special Counsel through legislative action and political pressure.

Our government still works even though it can be slow, messy and frustrating with no straight path for ideas and policies to become law or fix problems which are complicated by ideology. I learned quickly as a legislative assistant at a lobbying firm in Washington, D.C. how a bill becomes a law was not the sterilized version presented in civics class. Politicians, special interests and, advocacy organizations dont just rely on the merits of good legislation but branding, public relations, and polling play an important role. Also, constituents power is often underutilized or taken for granted with many citizens simply not voting which is a right at the heart of our democracy which is not exercised enough.

For those who did vote in the 2016 election, your motivations were based on core values, a passion for issues you care about or out of desperation for a bad social or economic situation. I believe some who voted for Trump had no ill intent but must confront the rationalizations that were made to vote for a candidate who appeases white nationalists. This has had tangible negative consequences and Charlottesvilles Mayor Michael Signer said it best, When you dance with the devil, the devil changes you. The outcome of last years election has changed us but I do see people trying to live up to our American values even though our President doesnt.

People now more than ever hide behind the First Amendment to do say horrible things, as we saw in Charlottesville, and how we handle free speech will determine how great America will be in the future. Free speech is a responsibility and that can be wielded for good or evil purposes and Americans have proven throughout history we can handle this privilege and triumph because of it.

We may be saturated in an environment where lies are told often and with a tenacity which leads people to accept them as truths. But curiosity to seek out the truth will prevail and when we speak with compassion and tolerance, acknowledge philosophical differences divorced from conspiracy theories, think logically while trying to check our own biases at the door, we all will win.

I have faith that healthcare legislation with no real hope of delivering better coverage will never pass. The investigations regarding the Trump campaigns collusion with Russia will proceed unimpeded with a free press reporting along the way. Immigration policies meant to create fear and violate the Constitution will remain banned and our own immigrant history will be the clarion call for better immigration and refugee policies. Racism will be overcome and extinguished from our government.

I also try to remember our history and that democracy has never been easy. It comes in many forms too, such as lifetime government employees doing their jobs regardless of political party, phone calls to Capitol Hill and long lines to vote. For me I remember the rallying cry, this is what democracy looks like, from the millions of protesters at the Womens March and seeing the streets of D.C. overflowing with peaceful marchers. Well always be shaping our democracy for better or worse.

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Is This What Democracy Looks Like? - HuffPost

Last month, the tiny oil-rich nation of Qatar filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization that its neighbours have been unfairly blocking its ability to trade goods, services and intellectual property. The countries are now in the midst of a 60-day consultation process that will probably go on to a formal dispute settlement. Amid this turmoil, the scientific community could offer a surprising source of influence and, for Qatari researchers, relief.

There are science academies in almost every region of the world. Some, such as the US National Academy of Sciences, established in 1863, are giants boasting a long history and tradition. Others, like the Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan, established in 1978, are minnows yet to make a mark. Academies enable scientists to publicly recognize the leaders in their fields, but they have a broader purpose, too. They nurture young talent, publish research, help to resolve controversies and represent their members to policymakers. Academies are far from perfect, as the under-representation of women and minorities confirms. But they are essential to science and society.

And yet you won't find a single academy among the wealthy nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a regional alliance. Some parts of the GCC such as Abu Dhabi, which aspires to build one of the world's first zero-carbon, and Qatar, with a network of high-technology national laboratories employ many scientists. But these scientists are forbidden from setting up academies.

The Gulf's ruling monarchies fear that if scientists are permitted to establish independent organizations, then groups representing women, minority religions, lawyers, teachers and students will also ask to create institutions, publish journals, hold elections and present themselves to governments.

The problem for younger scientists, especially, is that their ambitions are held back because no organization looks after their interests. Nor is there a formal mechanism for redress when laws or regulations thwart research and innovation. For example, staff at national innovation agencies think that changes to laws governing business ownership would encourage more technology start-ups (with wider benefits for science, society and the economy). Currently, every GCC member state demands that a majority of any company be owned by a citizen of that state. This makes it hard to create start-ups, because so many potential tech entrepreneurs students and researchers are from other countries. A science academy, or similar, could take up such concerns and lobby ruling families on behalf of researchers.

Qatar's rulers could be the first to allow science academies, albeit for reasons that, even a few months ago, would have been hard to predict. Since June, the GCC states, along with Egypt, have closed their air, land and sea borders with Qatar. These countries claim that Qatar has been backing opposition groups, either directly, by funding them, or indirectly through its sponsorship of Al Jazeera TV the nearest that the region has to an independent broadcaster. This is the biggest political crisis in the Middle East since the Arab Spring revolutions.

you won't find a single academy among the wealthy nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Qatar's leaders insist that everything is under control. In reality, everything has changed and scientists are caught in the turmoil. International research partnerships must find new routes into and out of Qatar when scientists want to transport equipment or meet colleagues. GCC embassies in the Qatari capital, Doha, are refusing to renew passports, in effect expelling people from the country. Perhaps most heartbreaking is the effect on families of researchers if one partner is from Egypt or is a non-Qatari GCC national who has been ordered home by their government. And because the children of Qatari women who are married to non-Qatari men do not have Qatari nationality, they too can face deportation.

With an influential, independent science academy, Qatar could capture researchers' concerns and put these to the government. A Qatari academy would also be able to call on the help of sister academies, and of international federations such as the World Academy of Sciences and the InterAcademy Partnership, both based in Trieste, Italy.

Qatar's science leaders already have strong links to Western organizations such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science, based in Washington DC, and the Royal Society in London. Elias Zerhouni, a former director of the US National Institutes of Health, led a team that advised the Qatari government on its research priorities. These Western groups should, collectively, urge Doha to make the leap.

Qatar is an absolute monarchy, with an indigenous population of just 300,000, so political power is distributed among a small number of families who are likely to prefer an academy in which members are endorsed, if not appointed, through Qatari royals. But such a body would not be a genuine science academy. And it would be ineligible for membership of the major global academy networks.

The nation's leaders fear that a science academy might shelter seeds of what could become a larger democratic revolution, and they are not wrong. But they should be able to see that a little more democracy, especially in a form that strengthens science and innovation, will help to preserve the long-term security of their tiny nation: moral arguments to protect a democracy against dictatorship are still compelling.

Who knows, where one nation leads, others may in time follow.

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A little democracy could go a long way - Nature.com