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<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Week the Trump Supporters Disappeared</strong> - In Washington, D.C., our leaders sealed themselves off from a rebel force that didn’t arrive. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/the-week-the-trump-supporters-disappeared">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Can Joe Biden Save American Catholicism from the Far Right?</strong> - Biden is the kind of flexible, independent-minded Catholic whom many bishops have spent their careers taking to task—and many progressive Catholics see as akin to themselves. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/can-joe-biden-save-american-catholicism-from-the-far-right">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Can the COVID-19 Vaccine Beat the Proliferation of New Virus Mutations?</strong> - Stopping transmission blocks the opportunity for viral mutation. Vaccination is the only means we have of standing in the virus’s way. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/can-the-covid-19-vaccine-beat-the-proliferation-of-new-virus-mutations">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Andrew Yang’s Ideas on Universal Basic Income Earned Him Fans. But Can He Win Votes?</strong> - His pitch in the mayoral race is for New York to become the “anti-poverty” city. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/andrew-yangs-ideas-on-universal-basic-income-earned-him-fans-but-can-he-win-votes">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>To Counter Climate Change, We Need to Stop Burning Things</strong> - Wood produces large amounts of carbon for each unit of energy it produces, and forests take decades to regrow and absorb that carbon—decades we don’t have. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/to-counter-climate-change-we-need-to-stop-burning-things">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
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<ul>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The 50-50 Senate is already running into trouble figuring out its rules</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/3C3ZhMRRfo30EekzcacCm4YTmIY=/23x0:4000x2983/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68709836/1230452662.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Then-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (R) stands with then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as they attend the Electoral College vote certification for President-elect Joe Biden, during a joint session of Congress at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in Washington, DC. | Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
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</figcaption>
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</figure></li>
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</ul>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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A Senate fight over the filibuster foreshadows Republican obstruction.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HakVN1">
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The Senate is now split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans — and an early argument over its rules could indicate just how much the GOP intends to obstruct other legislative priorities.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xXXrKe">
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Because Democrats control the White House, they have the majority in an evenly divided Senate, <a href="https://www.vox.com/22231450/kamala-harris-vice-president-influence-role">with Vice President Kamala Harris poised to serve as a tiebreaker</a>. To officially determine how the Senate will function when it comes to things like committee memberships, lawmakers need to approve what’s known as an organizing resolution that lays out these rules. (Without it, Republicans still confusingly head the committees and the distribution of funding; even office space isn’t yet clear.)
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="o07jsR">
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But the divided chamber can’t even agree on that. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell are negotiating this resolution, though they’ve reached a bit of a sticking point. Schumer has said he’d like to model this measure off a power-sharing agreement made between <a href="https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RS20785.html">Sens. Tom Daschle and Trent Lott in 2001</a>, during the last 50-50 Senate. McConnell, meanwhile, wants to add a caveat: He’d like Democrats to commit to keeping the legislative filibuster around.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MqKDk0">
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Schumer, and many members of the Democratic caucus, has blanched at this idea since it would severely limit the options the party has in the face of potential Republican pushback to bills, and reduce their leverage. Even if Democrats don’t vote to get rid of the filibuster, for example, the threat that they could may make Republicans more open to compromise and negotiations on policies like Covid-19 relief.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dtx0Of">
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The filibuster itself is something that gives Republicans more sway over the organizing resolution since the measure can also be filibustered.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4pnJQt">
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This disagreement is already affecting some aspects of the Senate’s functionality: Republicans are still running the confirmation hearings for Biden’s nominees <a href="https://time.com/5932616/why-mitch-mcconnell-is-filibustering-to-protect-the-filibuster/">and, as a Time report suggested</a>, are less inclined to expedite such proceedings. Plus, senators’ committee assignments have yet to be finalized even as the legislative body stares down a busy term.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YmCkhv">
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Republicans’ argument over the rules could signal the approach they’ll take in the minority — where they could use their numbers to block or significantly pare down upcoming bills.
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</p>
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<h3 id="VzgCzL">
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How a 50-50 Senate is expected to work
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GkhRqQ">
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Schumer, thus far, has said he hopes to approve an organizing resolution that’s very similar to the one that Daschle and Lott arrived at in 2001.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8DG7gk">
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“We have offered to abide by the same agreement the last time there was a 50-50 Senate. What’s fair is fair,” Schumer said in a floor speech.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="miIRNs">
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Because Democrats have the majority with Vice President Harris’s vote, they’ll hold the chair positions of every committee, but the resolution would split committee membership evenly, as well as office space and funding. Any measure that receives a tie vote in committee would also be able to receive some consideration for advancement on the floor.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OnG2Cb">
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As majority leader, Schumer will still control the floor schedule for legislation, and when to proceed to votes. “As for controlling the agenda, the Democrats will ensure they have standard majority party power, because in essence, they do,” <a href="https://www.politifact.com/article/2021/jan/07/how-will-senate-work-under-50-50-tie/">Josh Ryan, a Utah State University political scientist, told PolitiFact</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AYWYKB">
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Schumer has pointed to using the 2001 agreement as a model, because it set a precedent for how the two parties could operate in this unique circumstance.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cGRjs2">
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McConnell, however, also wants a commitment not to eliminate the legislative filibuster — which Democrats have balked at. “We need to have the kind of position of strength that will enable us to get stuff done,” <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/21/democrats-mcconnell-filibuster-460967">Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) told Politico</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="spAbh9">
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Democrats have pressed Schumer to stand firm on these rules negotiations, which underscore one of the party’s first shows of strength in the majority. They’ve pointed to the 2001 precedent, and said it should remain unchanged. <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/01/senate-filibuster-mcconnell-schumer-standoff.html?via=rss">As Slate’s Jim Newell noted</a>, McConnell’s motivations for pressing this issue are also unclear — since the resolution is not ultimately enforceable if Schumer later decides he wants to blow up the filibuster anyway.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aDyT2r">
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The 2001 example is the most recent time that the Senate has had this type of split: It’s only happened two other times in history, in 1881 and 1954.
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</p>
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<h3 id="eHoCPV">
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Deadlocks could push Democrats to consider reconciliation
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hCwufc">
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If Republican outcry about the Senate organizing resolution is any indication, the 50-50 breakdown could mean more roadblocks on everything from contentious Cabinet nominees to other legislative priorities, so much so that Democrats look to procedural options that get around these impasses.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="16BTu1">
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Democrats’ first option is to negotiate with Republicans on key bills including Covid-19 relief as well as immigration reform, with the hopes of picking up 10 lawmakers who would help hit the 60-vote threshold needed to advance these policies. At the same time, they face the challenge of keeping every member of their caucus in line, including moderates who may be more likely to peel off.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BpUFfZ">
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“You’ve got to keep your caucus together — Joe Manchin is the wildcard here, too. Kyrsten Sinema as well. The centrists are going to have a lot of power: Manchin, Sinema, Murkowski, Collins,” says Cook Political Report’s Jessica Taylor.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LnIhns">
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Growing GOP opposition toward Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid-19 recovery package indicates that Republicans may be gearing up to obstruct or limit his proposals, a scenario that could push Democrats to leverage a process known as budget reconciliation.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6Qxzoa">
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As part of budget reconciliation, lawmakers are able to advance spending and tax-related measures with a simple majority of votes, enabling Democrats to potentially pass some aspects of Covid-19 relief like direct payments and paid sick leave, without Republican backing. The degree of Republican opposition they face will likely be a factor in determining whether they ultimately take this route.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3whgCI">
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“I think it’s likely, if not almost a certainty, that reconciliation will be a tool,” former Sen. Tom Daschle told Vox.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gW8bHM">
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Depending on how severe Republicans’ blockade continues to be, eliminating the legislative filibuster might well be considered, too — though there’s currently disagreement within the Democratic caucus about whether to weigh that possibility. As Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) previously told Vox, “The dynamic to watch is whether Mitch McConnell does to a Biden presidency what he did to an Obama presidency.”
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Trump is gone. But the threat of right-wing violence that arose under his watch remains.</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/NZmhSiNQCkx05B9Rk8ub7rrVVqA=/111x0:2778x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68694577/AP_21017820592028.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Armed protesters, who identified themselves as Liberty Boys, pose for pictures outside the Oregon Capitol in Salem on January 17. | Noah Berger/AP
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</figcaption>
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</figure></li>
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</ul>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Are we entering a new era of political violence?
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5XGIsu">
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That the United States made it through President Joe Biden’s inauguration without any major act of violence is a relief. But the fact that we had to be seriously worried about it — to the point of deploying 25,000 National Guard troops to secure Washington, DC — illustrates that something has gone badly wrong.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JgMB1e">
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A country that once stood itself up as a model of liberal democratic stability is now beginning to reckon with the fact that it is at serious risk of a major wave of political violence.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2VGfbR">
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Federal agents have been warning of a surge in far-right violence <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/08/21/i-warned-of-right-wing-violence-in-2009-it-caused-an-uproar-i-was-right/">since at least 2009</a>, but <a href="https://www.vox.com/21506029/trump-violence-tweets-racist-hate-speech">Trump’s malign influence</a> supercharged the threat. The Trump years have seen a flurry of deadly right-wing violence: the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/12/7/18131240/unite-the-right-murder-heather-heyer-james-fields-charlottesville-life-sentence">murder of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville</a>; 16 pipe bombs mailed to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/nyregion/cesar-sayoc-sentencing-pipe-bombing.html">prominent Democrats and media figures</a>; the <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/10/18/20899208/tree-of-life-anniversary-pittsburgh-shooting-american-jews">mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue</a>; and then the Capitol assault, a literal attack on the democratic process by an armed mob fueled by bigotry and conspiracy theories.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="753hJT">
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As Biden’s presidency begins, Americans are faced with the possibility that we are entering a new era of political violence — one that Trump and his party have stoked for years.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3jL0ca">
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There’s no way to know what’s coming, of course. Experts on terrorism and political violence disagree sharply among themselves on just how dangerous things could get. But there are clear reasons for concern.
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</p>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<pre><code> <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/UOo9TKaQGqJpMB7ZHaqlEqW5GqU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22245849/GettyImages_1230644816.jpg" />
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<cite>Matthew Busch/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
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<figcaption>Scenes from an armed pro-Trump protest in Austin, Texas — one of many outside state capitols held on January 17.</figcaption></code></pre>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MvHdAV">
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“We haven’t really seen what I would call a sustained terrorist campaign in this country since the 1970s. [Today, there’s] probably a higher risk than any time since the 1970s,” says J.M. Berger, a fellow at the EU’s VOX-Pol research network. “I think after the last four years ... our capacity for resilience might be wearing thin.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GfANYM">
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In some ways, the fact that we’re even asking the question — are we entering a new era of political violence? — says it all.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cwgQW1">
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Sustained campaigns of political violence don’t happen in a vacuum; they become plausible only when societies are rent by deep and serious cleavages. The GOP’s willingness to play with rhetorical fire — stoking racial resentment, delegitimizing the Democratic Party and the democratic process, and even indulging in naked appeals to violent fantasies — has created an environment that can encourage the outbreak of right-wing violence. This is already doing concrete damage to our democracy: Several Republican legislators have said they would have supported impeachment if doing so did not <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/1/13/22229052/capitol-hill-riot-intimidate-legislators">pose a threat to their families’ lives</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gZBy4w">
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This specter of violence hanging over our politics may prove to be one of Trump’s most enduring legacies, and a steep challenge for a Biden administration already facing crises on multiple fronts.
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</p>
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<h3 id="IoDmxT">
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A new era of political violence?
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DKrkfm">
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To understand the risks America is facing right now, it’s worth unpacking Berger’s note about the 1970s — perhaps the closest historical analogue to what could happen in the coming months and years.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KH9jXO">
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Few today appreciate just how violent the 1970s were. The failures of 1960s radical movements drove a faction of the left toward political violence, leading to an era pockmarked by bombings, kidnappings, and other violent acts.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="szNgKj">
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According to <a href="https://www.start.umd.edu/pubs/START_IdeologicalMotivationsOfTerrorismInUS_Nov2017.pdf">the University of Maryland’s START database</a>, there were more terrorist attacks in the US in the 1970s (1,471) than there were in the next 36 years combined (1,323) — averaging out to about three attacks per week for an entire decade. High-profile targets included <a href="https://time.com/4549409/the-weather-underground-bad-moon-rising/">the Capitol and the Pentagon</a>. In 1976, a California-based radical group placed a bomb in a flower box outside <a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-feinstein-gun-control-20180328-story.html">Dianne Feinstein’s daughter’s bedroom</a> (at the time, the now-senator was on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors).
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vnMKbh">
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Sixty-eight percent of these attacks were attributable to left-wing militants. Some of the most prominent and violent organizations included the upper and middle-class radicals of the Weather Underground, the Marxist Puerto Rican separatists in <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Terrorism_in_America/-3CuViIjqj8C?hl=en">the Armed Forces of National Liberation</a>, and a Black Panther splinter group called the Black Liberation Army.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ecitkZ">
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Today, the principal domestic terrorist threat is on the right, not the left. While there certainly has been violence by left-wing individuals — like <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/14/us/steve-scalise-congress-shot-alexandria-virginia.html">the 2017 attack on the Republican congressional baseball team’s practice</a> where then-House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) was shot — repeated assessments from US officials and independent experts rank the far right as a greater threat than the left or even jihadists.
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</p>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<pre><code> <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/SfHcZj2D-7zF9JeWSms31pfXpxg=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22245861/GettyImages_1230658775.jpg" />
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<cite>Ryan M. Kelly/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
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<figcaption>Pro-Trump demonstrators at a rally near the Virginia Capitol in Richmond on January 18.</figcaption></code></pre>
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</figure>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<pre><code> <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/R-ll3iBjP0H6z3rsmiZNWWD_-30=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22245858/GettyImages_1230646094.jpg" />
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<cite>Stephen Zenne/AFP/Getty Images</cite>
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<figcaption>Members of the Ohio “boogaloo” movement gather near the statehouse in Columbus on January 17.</figcaption></code></pre>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bSLMuA">
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“That the far-right poses the most salient terrorist threat is no longer up for debate,” scholars Bruce Hoffman and Jacob Ware wrote in a November piece on <a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/terrorist-threat-fractured-far-right">Lawfare</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oAOQvM">
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As in the 1970s, the threat today is not one large al-Qaeda-style enemy but a series of diffuse groups and individually radicalized perpetrators, all of whom are frustrated with mainstream politics’ inability to get them what they want — be it a white ethnostate or a second Trump term.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zfr9q7">
|
||
You have outright white supremacists and neo-Nazis, like Atomwaffen. You have anti-government armed groups, like the Three Percenters or Oathkeepers, who see themselves as <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/1/5/10712084/oregon-militia-history-experts">defending Americans from perceived federal tyranny</a>. You have some “<a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/6/8/21276911/boogaloo-explained-civil-war-protests">boogaloo</a>” movement members and “<a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/11/11/20882005/accelerationism-white-supremacy-christchurch">accelerationists</a>,” who see violence as a means to destabilize and ultimately collapse the American state. You have the misogynist violence <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/4/16/18287446/incel-definition-reddit">arising out of the incel subculture</a>. And then there are some harder-to-categorize groups, like the street-brawling “Western chauvinist” <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/10/15/17978358/proud-boys-trump-biden-debate-violence">Proud Boys</a> or the <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/8/1/17253444/qanon-trump-conspiracy-theory-4chan-explainer">QAnon conspiracy theorists</a>. These groups simultaneously have deep disagreements and some overlap; individual radicals may not “belong” to an organized group but find elements of multiple different ideologies attractive.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PnqPlT">
|
||
Were there to be a ’70s-style sustained terrorist campaign from such militants, the results would likely be deadlier. According to UMD-START, though there were about eight times as many terrorist attacks in the 1970s as between 2010 and 2016, that disparity isn’t reflected in the fatalities (172 versus 140). This is partly the result of tactical choices by the 70s militants themselves, some of whom <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Bringing_the_War_Home/O34F9hWb5UcC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22weather+underground%22+terrorism&pg=PP1&printsec=frontcover">preferred symbolic bombings of unoccupied buildings</a> over actual killing.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LdUTMI">
|
||
Today’s far right favors bloodier tactics.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="evdOTu">
|
||
The past few years of right-wing shootings — like the 2015 attack on Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the 2018 attack on Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, and the 2019 attack on an El Paso Walmart with a heavily Latino clientele — were designed for maximum casualties, the perpetrators aiming to kill as many people from the groups they hate as possible. The Capitol Hill rioters <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/15/us/politics/fbi-investigation-capitol-sicknick.html">bludgeoned a police officer to death</a> and allegedly aimed to do more; prosecutors’ court filings warn of plans <a href="https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-fort-worth-texas-e13a0ee09d543415d46c3f34a02f444b">to take members of Congress hostage and perhaps even execute them</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<pre><code> <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/7NnixXCOL7fyyaWKrM4-U50-zfw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22245885/GettyImages_539553552.jpg" />
|
||
<cite>Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>Funeral services for Ethel Lance, one of the nine parishioners of the historical Emanuel AME Church in Charleston killed in 2015.</figcaption></code></pre>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<pre><code> <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/THTrjqsAwzf12Y_lQThHAa2qAW8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22245897/GettyImages_1055498668.jpg" />
|
||
<cite>Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>Caskets outside the Rodef Shalom Congregation in Pittsburgh, where the funeral for brothers Cecil Rosenthal and David Rosenthal — victims of the 2018 Tree of Life shooting — were held.</figcaption></code></pre>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<pre><code> <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/zZIVjCQcj0behRRpf1e7g9P3fGU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22245914/GettyImages_1167051594.jpg" />
|
||
<cite>Mario Tama/Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>Pallbearers wheel the casket of Angelina Englisbee, 86, a victim of the 2019 mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart.</figcaption></code></pre>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0O9ofr">
|
||
The idea of a steady drip of right-wing violence in the years ahead seems almost too awful to contemplate. And, to be clear, it’s not inevitable — experts are divided on just how likely it is. Yale political scientist Stathis Kalyvas said that “I don’t think there will be much” violence in the coming years. University College London’s Kate Cronin-Furman, meanwhile, warned that we were in the midst of a “one-way ratchet” toward higher levels of far-right killing.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dkj2E3">
|
||
There’s evidence for both perspectives. On the one hand, the internet gives authorities a powerful new set of surveillance tools that can be used to monitor extremist groups. Moreover, the post-9/11 security state is very well practiced at disrupting terrorist plots as compared to the FBI of the 1970s.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DmFcDH">
|
||
On the other hand, the internet also allows for individuals to self-radicalize by reading extremist content to a degree impossible in the pre-internet age. In addition, the Trump administration has systematically deprioritized right-wing radicalism (as compared to jihadism) for years — to the point where right-wing radicals have <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2020-12-15/when-far-right-penetrates-law-enforcement">successfully infiltrated law enforcement agencies and the armed forces</a>. The day before Biden’s inauguration, two members of the National Guard were removed from DC security duties after <a href="https://www.wtol.com/article/news/politics/national-politics/inauguration/national-guard-members-removed-from-inauguration-security/65-d4906643-dc28-48e6-8d8f-89a4af647c38">investigators discovered ties to right-wing extremism</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EFB7gU">
|
||
The Capitol Hill attack itself could go both ways — finally leading US law enforcement to take the threat of far-right domestic actors seriously, but also helping the far right organize and inspiring its adherents to future violence.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BUMz0u">
|
||
But perhaps the biggest outstanding question is the degree to which the far right gets encouragement from the political mainstream.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TWCpTK">
|
||
Only a tiny proportion of Americans are members of neo-Nazi organizations or Three Percenter militias. But Trump has proven uniquely effective at mainstreaming far-right politics. Whether calling the Charlottesville demonstrators “very fine people,” ordering the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” at a presidential debate, or telling the January 6 rioters that “<a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/1/6/22217630/trump-capitol-riots-mob-violence-love-you-stolen-election-lies">we love you</a>” as they ransacked the Capitol, the president has made it clear that violent fringe groups are a part of his coalition. There is no doubt that this has galvanized the far right, promoting recruiting and encouraging those who are already radicalized to be more violent.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GxrJE6">
|
||
In the days following the January 6 assault on the Capitol, Politico reporter Tim Alberta <a href="https://twitter.com/TimAlberta/status/1348328968081072133">tweeted</a> that “the stuff I’ve heard in the last 72 hours—from members of Congress, law enforcement friends, gun shop owners, MAGA devotees—is absolutely chilling. We need to brace for a wave of violence in this country. Not just over the next couple of weeks, but over the next couple of years.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="l6d4zh">
|
||
The question now is how the mainstream Republican Party handles this threat of violence. On this score, we have few reasons for optimism.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="LtWPVS">
|
||
The Republican Party’s delegitimization of Democrats and the mainstreaming of political violence
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="80LIyh">
|
||
In 1964, right-wing radical Barry Goldwater won the Republican nomination for president — and the endorsement of both the Georgia and Alabama chapters of the Ku Klux Klan. When asked for comment, Republican National Committee Chair Dean Burch <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/540f1546e4b0ca60699c8f73/t/5c3e694321c67c3d28e992ba/1547594053027/Long+New+Right+Jan+2019.pdf">welcomed the Klan’s support</a>: “We’re not in the business of discouraging votes,” he told the Associated Press.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qxzmic">
|
||
Though Goldwater eventually overrode Burch and disavowed the Klan, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Before-Storm-Goldwater-Unmaking-Consensus/dp/1568584121" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">he did little</a> to distance himself from other far-right supporters — like the viciously anti-Semitic minister Gerald L.K. Smith, who praised Goldwater because “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1964/10/11/archives/gerald-lk-smith-still-in-business-rightist-continues-to-print.html">every Jewish journal is against him</a>.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<pre><code> <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/44hml75nlNrUQZ7kG8_D_1dyZYk=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22245937/GettyImages_832853448.jpg" />
|
||
<cite>Library of Congress/Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>Ku Klux Klan members supporting Barry Goldwater’s campaign for the presidency at the Republican National Convention on July 12, 1964, in San Francisco, California.</figcaption></code></pre>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<pre><code> <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/MvxrxQ_0MUljXTC5eU-DXmkuSSs=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22245936/GettyImages_1188719110.jpg" />
|
||
<cite>Stan Wayman/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>A Goldwater supporter in Lima, Ohio, in 1964.</figcaption></code></pre>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8y74yl">
|
||
In a 2019 paper, the political scientists Sam Rosenfeld and Daniel Schlozman find that <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/540f1546e4b0ca60699c8f73/t/5c3e694321c67c3d28e992ba/1547594053027/Long+New+Right+Jan+2019.pdf">the Goldwater campaign’s approach to extremism</a> “presaged a half century of Republican politics to come.” The conservative movement, and the Republican Party it has long dominated, was so preoccupied with its eternal quest to defeat its liberal enemies that it had no interest in seriously policing its own right flanks.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HvTLF7">
|
||
“The goal to smash liberalism came first,” Rosenfeld and Schlozman write, leading to “a politics devoid of ... internal checks on extremism.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cd4Toe">
|
||
These two factors — the GOP’s all-consuming hatred of liberalism and its attendant unwillingness to police its own members — have not only pushed the party further and further to the right. They have created a climate in which Trumpism and its mainstreaming of the violent fringe can thrive.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NNuYpb">
|
||
For decades now, the Republican Party and the right-wing media echo chamber have been telling its faithful that mainstream Democrats are not just political rivals but an <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22217696/republicans-trump-capitol-hill-storming-mob-responsible">existential threat</a>. Just think about the things that have been said on Fox and talk radio in the past decade: Glenn Beck arguing that <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/7/13556876/glenn-beck-obama-trump">AmeriCorps would become Obama’s SS</a>, Rush Limbaugh claiming that Obama’s America was a place where <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rush-limbaugh-obamas-amer_n_288371">white children would be beaten while Black ones cheered</a>, and — of course — the spread of Donald Trump’s claim that Obama wasn’t born in America, something <a href="https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/xj7rpmvws8/econTabReport.pdf#page=139">56 percent of Republicans still believe</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wB6UPG">
|
||
The defining essay of the Trump era is a 2016 piece called the “<a href="https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/digital/the-flight-93-election/">The Flight 93 Election</a>.” Written by Michael Anton, a conservative academic who would later serve on Trump’s National Security Council, it compared the election to the single disrupted 9/11 hijacking — United Flight 93, in which brave passengers stormed the cockpit and forced the plane to crash before hitting its target (the Capitol). If Trump loses, Anton argued, America as we know it would collapse: “Charge the cockpit or you die.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uNlDva">
|
||
That call to action in the face of an existential threat has animated conservative discourse for years. In their 2009 book <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Guns_Democracy_and_the_Insurrectionist_I/1kY_DwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=joshua+horwitz&printsec=frontcover"><em>Guns, Democracy, and the Insurrectionist Idea</em></a>, gun policy experts Joshua Horowitz and Casey Anderson argue that calls to violence have become — via debates about the Second Amendment — an integral part of modern right-wing thinking. Republicans explicitly argue “that our constitution guarantees every American the right to prepare for armed confrontation with the government.” They note:
|
||
</p>
|
||
<blockquote>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oXGzlu">
|
||
In Heller v. DC, a [2008] challenge to the District of Columbia’s gun laws, the NRA, appearing as an amicus curiae, contended that one purpose of the Second Amendment is to protect an individual right to arm against the ‘depredations of a tyrannical government.’ The vice president of the United States and 305 members of Congress asked the Court to support that view. And in fact, in a landmark decision striking down parts of the District’s gun laws, the Court found that the Second Amendment includes an individual right to insurrection. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that citizens acting on their own are entitled to arm themselves and connect with others ‘in a citizen militia’ to counter government tyranny.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="i1rr4C">
|
||
For many conservatives, this is merely an issue of originalist jurisprudence: The founders believed this, and, like it or not, it’s how we must think about our gun laws, too. But if you live in right-wing spaces, told constantly by <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22217696/republicans-trump-capitol-hill-storming-mob-responsible">politicians like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and media figures like Limbaugh</a> that Democrats are tyrants in the making, why wouldn’t you conclude that the time for insurrection is nigh?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="G1RDTD">
|
||
Some Republicans make this linkage more clearly. In 2016, for example, then-candidate Trump suggested that “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/10/us/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton.html">Second Amendment people</a>” might be justified in using force to resist rulings from judges appointed by Hillary Clinton. In <a href="https://coloradotimesrecorder.com/2020/12/boebert-second-amendment-isnt-about-hunting-except-hunting-tyrants-maybe/33413/">December</a>, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) posted a tweet comparing coronavirus lockdowns to the “tyranny” opposed by the founders, following it up with an interview in which she said the Second Amendment is for “hunting tyrants.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vSVFg8">
|
||
Trump and legislators like Boebert, <a href="https://www.axios.com/lauren-boebert-house-election-colorado-qanon-9fde24b3-805b-4137-a557-2f0d55724b0f.html">a QAnon supporter</a>, are not the type of people that the Republican establishment ideally wants to put forward. But in both cases, the party’s leadership could have repudiated the candidates after their respective primary victories and chose not to — because beating Democrats was more important than beating extremism.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GA5jim">
|
||
The Republican Party’s inability to self-police is one of the big reasons to be pessimistic about America’s ability to head off a coming violent wave.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<pre><code> <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/FifrH0CvShNeo2Ih6uWnunSs2uA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22245942/GettyImages_1294461317.jpg" />
|
||
<cite>Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-CO, center in dark blue) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA, center in red) stand with other newly elected Republican House members for a group photo on January 4.</figcaption></code></pre>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bcSh8Q">
|
||
It’s not just that Trump is unlikely to be fully repudiated by his party; it’s that his extremist allies will remain party members in good standing. Sens. Cruz and Josh Hawley (MO), who helped legitimize Trump’s push to overturn the 2020 election results, and the majority of House Republicans backed this effort; the most extreme ones, like Boebert and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), have only gotten more prominent since the Capitol Hill attack.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C2F0op">
|
||
“We’ve got previously fairly mainstream-ish GOP politicians emboldened to directly undermine the Constitution; we’ve got MAGA fools feeling empowered to make more and more explicit threats,” Cronin-Furman says.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5Qkv5S">
|
||
“In the current climate, they’re deriving increasing benefits from their actions and paying basically no costs.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="KEqSjx">
|
||
Democracy under attack
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nPesBo">
|
||
The most successful terrorist campaign in American political history took place after the Civil War.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="s5pkIe">
|
||
Ex-Confederate soldiers and ordinary Southerners unwilling to give up on white supremacy formed a series of violent cells aimed at undermining Reconstruction. Their attacks, the most infamous of which were lynchings of recently freed Black people, aimed to disrupt racially egalitarian governments and impose costs on the North for continuing to occupy Southern land. The violence increased after Reconstruction ended, working to intimidate local Black populations while Southern states created new regimes that would render them second-class citizens.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GH4mZf">
|
||
Southern lynch mobs did not strike at random; they often targeted Black Americans in ways calculated to depress their political activity and empower the anti-Black Democratic Party. The journalist Ida B. Wells, <a href="https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/fear/unwritten-law">writing in 1900</a>, saw this clearly.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a116ME">
|
||
“These advocates of the ‘unwritten law’ boldly avowed their purpose to intimidate, suppress, and nullify the Negro’s right to vote,” she wrote. “In support of its plans, the Ku Klux Klan, the Red Shirts, and similar organizations proceeded to beat, exile, and kill Negroes until the purpose of their organization was accomplished.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float-right">
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<pre><code> <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/PD39bDEHwwDuOwLOY_5ahSyVdAA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22245965/AP_7710260147.jpg" />
|
||
<cite>Harold Valentine/AP</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, pictured above, was a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1989 to 1992. He twice endorsed Trump for president.</figcaption></code></pre>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tUjbBr">
|
||
Modern statistical evidence bears out Wells’s observation. A <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/rule-by-violence-rule-by-law-lynching-jim-crow-and-the-continuing-evolution-of-voter-suppression-in-the-us/CBC6AD86B557A093D7E832F8D821978B">2019 paper</a> in the journal <em>Perspective on Politics </em>found that the numbers of lynchings in a given county went down significantly after state-level imposition of Jim Crow statutes; in other words, the violence only declined after it had accomplished its ends.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PMHNbh">
|
||
Political violence is not part of a healthy democracy; it is its antithesis, used to accomplish ends that cannot be reached at the ballot box alone. But, perversely, such violence can be <em>used</em> by political actors in a democracy to get what they want — even if they do not have formal links with the violent groups, just a shared ideological affinity. This was part of the story of the South after the Civil War; it was part of America’s story in the Trump era, and may well remain one during Biden’s presidency.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6MkPVz">
|
||
In mid-January, Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) said that the threat of violent reprisal was a <a href="https://twitter.com/MeetThePress/status/1349369689227603968">major reason more House Republicans weren’t voting to impeach Trump</a> in the wake of the attack on the Capitol.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ntAqCc">
|
||
“The majority of them are paralyzed with fear,” Crow said on MSNBC. “I had a lot of conversations with my Republican colleagues last night, and a couple of them broke down in tears — saying that they are afraid for their lives if they vote for this impeachment.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LqiGEN">
|
||
Alberta, the Politico correspondent, found in his own reporting that “<a href="https://twitter.com/TimAlberta/status/1349389150622019584">Crow was right</a>.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="13x1fn">
|
||
“I know for a fact several members <em>want</em> to impeach but fear casting that vote could get them or their families murdered,” Alberta writes. “Numerous House Republicans have received death threats in the past week.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cKlprw">
|
||
This fear did not only affect the impeachment vote. Rep. Pete Meijer (R-MI) has said that he personally knows <a href="https://reason.com/2021/01/08/amash-successor-peter-meijer-trumps-deceptions-are-rankly-unfit/">several House Republicans</a> who wanted to vote to certify Biden’s 2020 electoral win but were afraid for their lives if they chose to do so.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NFkV3D">
|
||
We do not actually need a huge spike in far-right violence for it to be politically impactful. The mere threat of future violence can poison a democracy.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<pre><code> <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/MxAWi1Ktsg9cEgyfLevVwzedDok=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22245971/AP_21017680249565.jpg" />
|
||
<cite>Winslow Townson/AP</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>Armed Trump supporters stand in front of the New Hampshire Statehouse in Concord on January 17.</figcaption></code></pre>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<pre><code> <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/xu3b8jZZx5Ntf0I5Gna0_aEfTRg=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22245972/AP_21017765748708.jpg" />
|
||
<cite>Noah Berger/AP</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>Self-described Liberty Boys, an anti-government group, stand outside the Oregon Capitol in Salem on January 17.</figcaption></code></pre>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fS7LMm">
|
||
And the problem is self-replicating. If more moderate Republicans are afraid to speak up, extremists will increasingly speak for the party. The more the extremists speak for the party, the more they will push Republicans voters to the far right and embolden violent far-right actors, further intimidating moderate voices from speaking out.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="s23HXI">
|
||
This is one key difference from the political dynamics of the 1970s. Back then, <a href="https://twitter.com/yeselson/status/1347995541049847810">no significant faction of the Democratic Party</a> was aligned with the violent radicals. Today, large sections of the far right see themselves as acting on behalf of or in conjunction with the Trumpist forces in the Republican Party. In footage of Capitol Hill mobbers ransacking the Senate floor, one attacker justifies his actions by saying “<a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/ted-cruz-would-want-us-to-do-this-capitol-rioter-tells-maga-mob-pals-in-video-from-senate-floor">[Ted] Cruz would want us to do this</a>.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YVb71d">
|
||
“There seem to be enough guns, political support, and rhetorical space to sustain at least some degree of mobilization by violence-curious radicals,” says Paul Staniland, a political scientist at the University of Chicago. “It’s a lot easier to unleash carnage than to pack it back away.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ssvSXT">
|
||
Biden’s presidency has not ended the threat to American democracy from violent radicals. There’s a real chance it could get worse from here.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Biden plans to continue many of Trump’s foreign policies — at least for now</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/-V2u8nHkbyW_et8Rwaflmah24mU=/0x0:3200x2400/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68707284/1229228819.0.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
This combination of pictures created on October 22, 2020 shows former President Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden during the final presidential debate in Nashville, Tennessee, on October 22, 2020. | Brendan Smialowski, Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Biden’s team members have already signaled they intend to continue several of Trump’s policies from Venezuela to Ukraine to Israel and even China.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="K4m9pp">
|
||
President Joe Biden promised a clean break from the Trump years on US foreign policy. But according to recent statements from Biden’s incoming secretary of state and other top officials, there will likely be more continuity than change, at least for a while.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gFaCTg">
|
||
It’s only three days into the new administration, but Biden’s team members have already signaled they intend to continue several of the <a href="https://www.axios.com/biden-foreign-policy-yemen-iran-0c3ccf09-62c6-4197-9970-21f2e3bff479.html">policies</a> President Donald Trump pursued during his presidency, from Venezuela to Ukraine to Israel and even China.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7rEK2E">
|
||
Many of these details about Biden’s foreign policy plans emerged during Secretary of State-designate Antony Blinken’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/1/19/22238707/haines-maorkas-blinken-austin-confirmation-hearings-biden">confirmation hearing</a> on Tuesday, one day before Biden was sworn in as president.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="30wuPb">
|
||
Blinken said the US would continue to recognize <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-biden-state-venezuela/biden-will-recognize-guaido-as-venezuelas-leader-top-diplomat-says-idUSKBN29O2PE">Juan Guaidó</a> as Venezuela’s interim president, a decision the Trump administration made in January 2019 as part of its effort to <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2019/5/3/18528083/venezuela-guaido-maduro-trump-bolton-fail">depose the country’s dictator, Nicolás Maduro</a>. Blinken added that the new team would also continue to sanction Maduro and his government, only “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-biden-state-venezuela/biden-will-recognize-guaido-as-venezuelas-leader-top-diplomat-says-idUSKBN29O2PE">more effectively</a>.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="K5XkKq">
|
||
Blinken also said the Biden administration will <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/19/politics/blinken-confirmation-hearing/index.html">continue training and sending lethal weapons to Ukraine’s military</a> as it tries to fend off Russian forces in the country’s east. <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-admin-approves-sale-anti-tank-weapons-ukraine/story?id=65989898">Trump approved the sale of anti-tank weapons to Ukraine</a> in 2017, a move the Obama administration had refused to make and that some feared would escalate the seven-year conflict.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YfOmkp">
|
||
The incoming top diplomat said Biden will oppose the completion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline between Germany and Russia. The <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50875935">Trump administration sanctioned Russia</a> over the plan in 2019, claiming the $11 billion oil-delivery system would make the heart of Europe more dependent on Moscow. Biden, who officials <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/biden-russia-nuclear-treaty-extension/2021/01/21/4667a11e-5b40-11eb-aaad-93988621dd28_story.html">say</a> isn’t planning any kind of “reset” of relations with Russia anytime soon, seems to agree.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CyhsLW">
|
||
Biden’s pipeline opposition could set up a conflict with Germany, and Chancellor <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/angela-merkel-joe-biden-nord-stream-2/">Angela Merkel</a> has already said she wants to discuss the issue with the new American president. “My basic attitude has not changed yet to the point where I say that the project should not exist,” she said during a Thursday press conference, noting how critically many in the US and in Europe view Nord Stream 2.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JR71th">
|
||
Blinken told lawmakers that he and the Biden administration consider <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/1/20/us-secretary-of-state-blinken-us-embassy-to-remain-in-jerusalem">Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel</a> and committed to keeping the US embassy there. Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the embassy there from its previous location in Tel Aviv in <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/5/14/17340798/jerusalem-embassy-israel-palestinians-us-trump">2018</a>, a move that upended decades of US diplomacy in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and that some worried would spark widespread violence in the region. That violence didn’t materialize, and now it seems the status quo is just that — the status quo.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DQih8z">
|
||
Blinken also commended Trump for being “<a href="https://nypost.com/2021/01/19/tony-blinken-trump-was-right-to-take-tougher-china-approach/">right in taking a tougher approach to China</a>” and said the Trump administration’s decision to label Beijing’s treatment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang a <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/1/19/22238962/china-genocide-uighur-muslims-xinjiang-biden-pompeo">“genocide”</a> was correct. The Biden aide was clear that the new team’s tactics toward China would differ from the Trump team’s, but the general thrust of US policy toward the country — confrontation — would stay the same.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nft14p">
|
||
Finally, Biden promised on the campaign trail to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal as long as Tehran came back into compliance by reducing its uranium enrichment levels. But Blinken, along with Biden’s Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and White House press secretary Jen Psaki, have made it clear in recent days that <a href="https://www.vox.com/22242208/iran-nuclear-deal-bien-haines-blinken-psaki">any return to the accord could take a while</a>, and may not even happen at all.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LmjC5V">
|
||
“I think, frankly, we’re a long ways from that,” Haines said during her own Tuesday confirmation hearing.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LYmZcO">
|
||
This isn’t the foreign policy sea change many expected, considering how often Biden blasted Trump’s handling of foreign affairs during the campaign. But some critics, including progressives, aren’t surprised.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ggRPDc">
|
||
“Joe Biden never promised to be a revolutionary or to enact radical change, so what we’ve seen so far both in terms of personnel and policy shouldn’t exactly be surprising,” said Stephen Miles, executive director of the advocacy group Win Without War. “Given how broken our current foreign policy is, any transition is thus going to start far from where progressives want to be.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="xRWSSA">
|
||
Is Biden’s foreign policy Trump 2.0? Not exactly.
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="70X1B3">
|
||
None of this is to say Biden plans to run America’s foreign policy the same way Trump did.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4uG4gK">
|
||
Biden has been in the White House for less than a week, and it’s common for new presidents to continue many of their predecessors’ foreign policies even if they may not completely agree with them because they can’t find a way to reverse them quickly or easily. Presidents Obama and Trump both wanted out of the Afghanistan War, for example, but neither ended it despite 12 combined years of trying.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="z9bLVQ">
|
||
Plus, <a href="https://www.vox.com/21564009/trump-biden-foreign-policy-china-war-hostages">Trump did some good things on the world stage</a>, so Biden wouldn’t want to scrap every one of his moves.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="t1PFdK">
|
||
“Biden is right to also maintain continuity on some foreign policy issues,” said American University’s Jordan Tama, an expert on US foreign policy. “Not every foreign policy action by the Trump administration was wrong, and rash moves to reverse every Trump decision would generate a kind of whiplash that makes the US look like an unreliable partner.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="x0GOsb">
|
||
But it’s exceedingly clear that Biden’s time in office won’t mirror Trump’s. There will clearly be major differences, and we’ve already seen some.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XDoLad">
|
||
Biden rejoined the <a href="https://www.vox.com/22241348/president-biden-climate-change-paris-agreement-executive-order-keystone-pipeline">Paris climate agreement</a> and the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/1/20/22238609/biden-inauguration-paris-climate-deal-world-health-organization">World Health Organization</a> after Trump withdrew the US from them. He repealed the <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/1/20/22235986/biden-trump-travel-muslim-ban">travel ban on Muslim-majority countries</a> and vowed America would participate in <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/1/21/22242290/fauci-who-biden-administration-covid-19">Covax</a>, the global initiative to develop and equitably distribute vaccine doses worldwide. More than 170 countries are members of the initiative, though the Trump administration had declined to join — an outlier, along with Russia.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QitysG">
|
||
“These early foreign policy steps demonstrate a commitment to international cooperation, equity, and basic rights — as well as a willingness to stand up to adversaries — that was sorely lacking in Trump’s foreign policy,” Tama told me.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4BkxgN">
|
||
And perhaps the biggest change so far is Blinken’s confirmation that Biden will quickly<strong> </strong><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/tony-blinken-pledges-immediately-review-us-terror-designation-houthis">end support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen</a>. “This is one of the highest human rights and progressive priorities,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), a leading proponent for a more left-wing foreign policy, told me.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9ef1sX">
|
||
Those are significant breaks, and it’s clear US foreign policy will shift quite a bit during Biden’s four years in charge. But those hoping that Biden would completely leave Trump’s legacy behind right away may be disappointed by some of the administration’s early signals.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pak vs SA Test series | Azhar Ali tells Pakistan youngsters to overcome fear of failure</strong> - South Africa are visiting Pakistan after a 13-year gap to face a side led by batting mainstay Babar Azam.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Thailand Open | Satwik-Chirag’s impressive run ends with semifinal defeat</strong> - The Indian pair had participated in Super 1000 events in 2018 ad 2019 but this is the first time it entered the semifinals.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ajinkya ‘bhaiya’ asked me if I could bowl with injury, I had to say yes, says Navdeep Saini</strong> - Having not bowled with red-ball in Australia ever prior to the series, Saini said it was an enriching experience.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Triple H: ‘Never say never about my in-ring return’</strong> - WWE executive Paul Levesque aka Triple H says the wrestling promotion plans to produce localised content for India whilst discussing the challenges for Indian athletes to make their mark in the main roster of performers</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>When Mambalam Mosquitos had an address in Adyar</strong> - Since its birth in the 1940s, ‘Mambalam Mosquitos’ has been a conversation starter even before a ball is bowled. After decades of speculation over whe</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Hooda opposes changes in domicile regulations by Haryana govt.</strong> - They will place people of State at a disadvantage, says ex-Chief Minister</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>HAL to deliver three Light Combat Helicopters before March 31</strong> - It will deliver 12 more in the next financial year</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>LIFE hits 2.5 lakh houses milestone</strong> - Work on 36 flat complexes progressing in various parts of the State</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Mamata Banerjee declines to speak at Netaji event after ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans were raised</strong> - This is a government programme and not a political programme, says the West Bengal Chief Minister</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Revoke G.O. on property tax, VCCI submits representation to CM</strong> - ‘People are struggling and yet to come out of the pandemic situation’</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Alexei Navalny: Hundreds detained in protests across Russia</strong> - Thousands of supporters of the jailed opposition leader defy a protest ban to attend nationwide rallies.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Coronavirus: EU vaccine woes mount as new delays emerge</strong> - AstraZeneca is the latest company, after Pfizer, to warn of delivery issues, frustrating officials.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Steinmetz Swiss trial: Jail for tycoon in Guinea mine corruption trial</strong> - Israeli businessman Beny Steinmetz is given a jail term by a Swiss court in a historic corruption case.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Mira Furlan: Babylon 5 and Lost actress dies at 65</strong> - Mira Furlan starred as Minbari Ambassador Delenn in 1990s sci-fi drama Babylon 5.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Diary Sow: Talented Senegal student 'sorry' after disappearing in France</strong> - Diary Sow, who raised concern by failing to return to school in Paris, had been "on a little break".</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What’s the technology behind a five-minute charge battery?</strong> - The company behind a new battery isn't saying much, but we figured a few things out. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1736851">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The art and science of boarding an airplane in a pandemic</strong> - Researchers and airlines obsessed over efficiency now worry about safety, too. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1736971">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>This site posted every face from Parler’s Capitol Hill insurrection videos</strong> - Faces of the Riot used ISS to detect, extract, and deduplicate every face. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1736948">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What happens to the brain on sudden impact? Egg yolks could hold the answer</strong> - Rotational deceleration causes most deformation—like getting punched on the chin - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1735714">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Waymo CEO dismisses Tesla self-driving plan: “This is not how it works”</strong> - Elon Musk and John Krafcik have very different theories about driverless tech. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1736918">link</a></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><strong>I set the pornhub theme as my ring tone, because if anyone at business meetings recognizes it they'll be too ashamed to comment.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
They did stop shaking my hand though...
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ImABigMachine"> /u/ImABigMachine </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/l33ut8/i_set_the_pornhub_theme_as_my_ring_tone_because/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/l33ut8/i_set_the_pornhub_theme_as_my_ring_tone_because/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>The Russian Prime Minister comes to President Putin and nervously tells him to abolish these time zones.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Putin: Why?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Prime Minister: Ah, I can't find myself with these times. I fly to another city, call home and everyone is asleep. Once, I woke you up at 4 in the morning, but I thought it was only evening. I called Angela Merkel to congratulate her on her birthday and she tells me she had it yesterday. And then, when I wished the Chinese President a happy New Year, and he said that it was on the next day.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Putin: Well, these are just minor issues.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Prime Minister: Minor issues?! Do you remember when that Polish plane crashed with their President? I called them to express my condolences, but the plane hadn't even taken off yet!!!
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</p>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/the-best-joker"> /u/the-best-joker </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/l2pmtr/the_russian_prime_minister_comes_to_president/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/l2pmtr/the_russian_prime_minister_comes_to_president/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>My friend couldn't afford to pay his water bill.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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So I sent him a "<strong>get well soon</strong>" card.
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</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
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|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Zipzzap"> /u/Zipzzap </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/l2uypp/my_friend_couldnt_afford_to_pay_his_water_bill/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/l2uypp/my_friend_couldnt_afford_to_pay_his_water_bill/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>What do Alexander The Great and Winnie The Pooh have in common?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
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<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Same middle name.
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</p>
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</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/jseyfer"> /u/jseyfer </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/l2rot1/what_do_alexander_the_great_and_winnie_the_pooh/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/l2rot1/what_do_alexander_the_great_and_winnie_the_pooh/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>A man gets stopped by a game warden with his basket full of fish.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Warden: do you have a permit for all these fish?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Man: no sir. These are all my pet fish
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Warden: your pet fish? How’s that?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Man: well, every night I take all my pet fish for a walk to the lake, I let them swim for about a half hour, and then I whistle and they all come back and jump in my basket and we go home. We do this every night.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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||
Warden: well that’s just a crock of lies!!
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Man: here, I’ll show you... (releases the fish into the lake).
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Warden: well this I gotta see!! (5 minutes later...)
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Warden: well??
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Man: what?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Warden: the fish!! Where’s your pet fish??
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Man: what fish??
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/zarmril"> /u/zarmril </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/l2vp2s/a_man_gets_stopped_by_a_game_warden_with_his/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/l2vp2s/a_man_gets_stopped_by_a_game_warden_with_his/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
|
||
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