US Senate Candidate in Louisiana Burns Confederate Flag in Campaign Ad

Pensito Editors

The Hill: “Gary Chambers, a U.S. Senate candidate in Louisiana who went viral last month for smoking a blunt in a campaign ad, burned a Confederate flag while decrying restrictive voting laws in his latest video released on Wednesday.

“In a one-minute video titled ‘Scars and Bars,’ Chambers is seen wearing a camo jacket as he pins a Confederate flag on a clothesline and ignites it with a lighter — right after he cites the famous Declaration of Independence line ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’

As the flag burns, the Louisiana Democrat argues that inequality lingers and ‘remnants of the Confederacy remain’ in the South. The candidate mentions gerrymandered districts and restrictive voting laws as “byproducts” of the Confederacy.

“‘The attacks against Black people, our right to vote and participate in this democracy, are methodical,’ he said. ‘Our system isn’t broken. It’s designed to do exactly what it’s doing, which is producing measurable inequity.'”

Fascists Hold an Old Fashioned Book Burning in Tennessee

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Book burning in Tennessee
Book burning in Tennessee

Nashville Scene: “Last week, McMinn County made news when the school board voted to ban beloved graphic novel Maus — a Holocaust story told with anthropomorphic mice and cats — due to instances of swear words and nudity. While the vote happened in early January, it went viral following a report from TN Holler.

“Last night, Mt. Juliet pastor and pro-Trump conspiracy theorist Greg Locke decided to turn it up a notch by organizing an old-fashioned book burning. The books included millennial staples like Harry Potter and Twilight — hits of the early Aughts that were targeted by Christian book burnings back in the day.

“In a sermon preceding the bonfire, Locke described beefing with ‘Free Mason devils’ and said ‘I ain’t gonna be ‘suiciding myself’ no time soon.’ Locke also said people aren’t mad that they were burning books, but mad because of the books they were burning — implying that his critics, even other pastors, were devil and witchcraft supporters.

“You can see the footage in Locke’s Facebook video of the event — the burning starts about an hour in.”

[…]

Report: Christian Nationalism Fueled Jan. 6 Insurrection

Buck Banks

The report, issued by the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, details Christian nationalist rhetoric and symbols that were apparent at the Jan. 6 insurrection as well as at events that preceded the insurrection, such as the Million MAGA March and Jericho Marches that took place in Washington in December 2020 and January 2021.

Christian nationalist symbols and references were ubiquitous at those gatherings, as well as at the insurrection itself: flags with superimposed American flags over Christian symbols; “An Appeal to Heaven” banners; prayers recited by members of the extremist group Proud Boys shortly before the attack or by others as they stormed the Capitol.

Andrew Seidel, who wrote most of the 60-page report, said that if the Jan. 6 insurrectionists “decided to get a little more serious, next time we’re in more trouble.” Looking toward the 2022 midterm election and the 2024 presidential race, he said the potential for violence wrought by Christian nationalists haunts him.

“I really hope people wake up and recognize it for the threat that it is,” he said.

Why do Republicans Oppose Biden’s Promise to Pick a Black Woman for SCOTUS

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View of United States Supreme Court Building, Washington, DC.
Five-Thirty-Eight examines the GOP resistance to President Biden’s promise to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court. In a word, it’s racism.

As Stanford professor and FiveThirtyEight contributor, Hakeem Jefferson, tweeted, “Conservatives didn’t get upset when Trump promised to nominate a woman to the bench because the qualifier ‘white’ was simply implied.” He later added that it’s the misogynoir, or unique biases Black women experience, not the pledge, that is the problem.

Read the rest here.