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Now the Alt-Right is Targeting Young Boys with Pokémon Nazi Challenge

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“Gotta Catch ‘Em All” Sounds Very Different When Pikachu Is Dressed Like Hitler

Caution: Disturbing image, language below.

Last week the White Supremacist (“alt-right”) website The Daily Stormer announced it had begun sponsoring the distribution of Nazi propaganda to children playing Pokémon Go. Crediting the idea to “an enterprising stormer”, the website is encouraging supporters to distribute the flyers (pictured below) to white children hanging out at Pokémon gyms.

Vocativ first reported the story last week and since that time, Daily Stormer writer and proud racist Andrew Anglin doubled down on his efforts as he pushed back against supporters who took issue with co-opting the beloved game. Anglin claims flyers with racist slurs and Nazi imagery will draw in large numbers of preteens and teens because “…young boys like rebellious things. It excites them. It makes them interested. The flyer, in my view, was perfectly designed to appeal to young boys, and I think we’re going to get a huge response once people start handing them out.”

The flyer in question shows a Pikachu character dressed to look like Hitler and starts with a vile and vicious call out: 

 hey_white_boy.jpg

The back side of the flyer continues, 

The race war is coming. The Jews are going to release the [n-word] on you, they’re going to burn down your cities. They’re going to rape your mother and your sister, they’re going to butcher you all. 

We need to organize and we need to do it quickly. 

The first step is to vote for DONALD TRUMP. You are probably too young to vote, but you need to do everything you can to support his rise as GOD EMPEROR.

Not all White Supremacists seem to be on board with this extreme approach to recruitment, however. Responding to the “several negavite comments’” he’s received, Anglin says on his blog that, no matter how harsh the flyer may be, it doesn’t matter. Once people learn “that very extreme right-wing people exist, lesser extreme right-wing people become more socially acceptable in their minds.” In other words, as long as there are people like Anglin around, Donald Trump’s less extreme views on white supremacy will become acceptable in the mainstream world. 

Further down, Anglin pushes the philosphy that his extreme beliefs are appealing in and of themselves. “In extreme situations, such as that which exists in modern America, people tend to be more drawn to extremism and extreme solutions.” He says most people have long since stopped paying attention because “Trump has been called a racist six million times.”

We’re so desensitized to the claims of bigotry and racism that even “If the media were to present these flyers and say ‘look, racist Alt-Right Neo-Nazi Pokemon conspiracy!!!!’ it would simply be more noise.”

Anglin’s extremism is, oddly, so extreme to some people they’ve accused him of being “some kind of secret Jewish agent.” To prove how absurd the accusation is, Anglin writes, “Why don’t you go see if you can find someone accusing Allen Ginsberg of being a secret Nazi agent. If not, than there is some very serious misunderstanding going on (at the very least).” 

But why Pokémon, and why childish arguments and tactics? As Anglin himself says, “The Daily Stormer was designed to appeal to teenagers, but I have long thought that we needed to get pre-teens involved in the movement. At that age, you can really brainwash someone easily. Anyone who accepts Nazism at the age of 10 or 11 is going to be a Nazi for life.”

 

Image by Eduardo Woo via Flickr and a CC license
Hat tip: Wonkette

 

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Trump Urges Judge Aileen Cannon to Keep Jack Smith Report Secret

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President Donald Trump is urging U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to block any release of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s final report on his investigation into the president’s alleged mishandling of hundreds of classified documents, in a case that had been charged in part under the Espionage Act.

On Tuesday, Trump argued in a court filing that Smith’s report should never be made public, in what would be a deviation from previous practice, Politico reported.

The president urged Cannon, whom he nominated to the bench, “to extend her 11-month-old order blocking the Justice Department from releasing the full report, which Smith submitted shortly before Trump’s second inauguration.”

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In the court document, Trump’s attorney, Kendra Wharton, wrote that allowing the report to become public would “perpetuate Jack Smith’s unlawful criminal investigations and proceedings.”

Politico noted that the president’s filing “is infused with the typical disdain Trump has expressed for his former prosecutors, labeling Smith a ‘so-called special counsel’ and saying the case was ‘marred by numerous deficiencies and repeated abuses of office.'”

Smith dropped all charges against Trump after the U.S. Supreme Court, in a highly controversial ruling, found that presidents have extensive immunity from prosecution for official acts.

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“Trump’s request is a break from the Justice Department’s handling of all special counsel reports in recent decades,” Politico added. “Typically, those reports are provided to Congress and made public, even when they have included damaging findings about the incumbent administration.”

The day after Trump was inaugurated, Judge Cannon denied the U.S. Department of Justice’s request to share Smith’s report on his investigation into Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents with Congress. Her order came just hours after Trump signed an executive order to hold former government officials accountable for “unauthorized disclosure” of “sensitive” information, and “for election interference.”

Cannon refused to allow members of Congress to review Smith’s final report. Trump was investigated for alleged unlawful removal, retention, and refusal to return sensitive, classified, and top-secret documents, reportedly including nuclear and defense secrets. The FBI executed a lawful search warrant on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and residence to retrieve some of the documents.

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Image via Reuters

 

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Trump Seen Struggling to Stay Awake Repeatedly in Cabinet Meeting Video

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Once again, President Donald Trump appeared to struggle to stay awake, this time during his mid-Tuesday televised Cabinet meeting. At several points, the president was filmed with his eyes closed, occasionally reopening them while seeming disengaged.

In one 30-second clip, the president’s eyes close numerous times, then Trump nods when he is mentioned. In a shorter clip, Trump also struggles to keep his eyes open, as his hand holds up his head.

In a 23-second clip, the president is hunched over, slouching in his chair, his eyes closed in what could be described as appearing to nod off.

Trump slouches and appears to try to listen as HUD Secretary Scott Turner speaks, in this 79-second video.

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In a 17-second clip, journalist Aaron Rupar wrote, “Trump’s face is becoming contorted as he desperately tries to cling to consciousness.” In another, he called the president “Dozy Don.”

But in perhaps the most extreme capture of the president appearing to doze off, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks, Trump is totally hunched over, his eyes closed, his head then falls forward, and he appears to try to wake up before seemingly falling back asleep.

While this is not the first time the president has appeared to fall asleep on camera, it comes after a massive late-night social media spree, in which Trump posted or reposted over 150 times, as Alternet reported.

Axios’ Marc Caputo noted that “Trump went on a Truth Social bender last night, posting 158 times from 9pm Monday to 12am Tuesday Just before 5:30 am, he started hitting social media again.”

The media is beginning to notice.

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Last week, The New York Times published an in-depth look at Trump’s “signs of fatigue.”

“Mr. Trump appeared to doze off during an event in the Oval Office,” one week after Halloween, the Times noted.

The president “has fewer public events on his schedule and is traveling domestically much less than he did by this point during his first year in office, in 2017, although he is taking more foreign trips,” according to the Times. “He also keeps a shorter public schedule than he used to. Most of his public appearances fall between noon and 5 p.m., on average.”

“During an Oval Office event that began around noon on Nov. 6,” the Times added, “Mr. Trump sat behind his desk for about 20 minutes as executives standing around him talked about weight-loss drugs.”

“At one point, Mr. Trump’s eyelids drooped until his eyes were almost closed, and he appeared to doze on and off for several seconds. At another point, he opened his eyes and looked toward a line of journalists watching him. He stood up only after a guest who was standing near him fainted and collapsed.”

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GOP Touts ‘Gulf of America Act’ in Bold New List of Party ‘Accomplishments’

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Speaker Mike Johnson in a House Republican leadership press conference on Tuesday told reporters, “Republicans are not just going to hold onto the majority,” in 2026. “We’re going to grow it.”

Earlier, during their conference meeting, Johnson “told House Republicans that he expects the GOP to defy history in 2026 — win more seats/not lose majority — due to their performance this year,” Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman reported. “The party in power usually loses seats in a midterm.”

At the press conference, as reported by The Hill’s Emily Brooks, Republicans displayed three large posters detailing “House GOP Accomplishments.” The three posters list less than three dozen successes. Many of them are not related to what President Donald Trump ran on — mainly, reducing the cost of living for Americans.

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Among the thirty-plus accomplishments is the passage of the “Gulf of America Act,” which directs federal agencies to observe President Trump’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico.

The posters also brag that they defunded USAID, NPR, and PBS.

Reports, including from The New Yorker, charge that defunding USAID has or will lead to the death of hundreds of thousands, including children:

“As of November 5th, it estimated that U.S.A.I.D.’s dismantling has already caused the deaths of six hundred thousand people, two-thirds of them children.”

In July, the UCLA Newsroom reported that “USAID cuts may lead to more than 14 million deaths globally, including 4.5 million children under 5 by 2030, researchers say.”

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The House GOP’s posters also brag that they passed President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which is responsible for gutting about $1 trillion from Medicaid. It also effectively forces cuts of hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicare, and takes a large chunk out of SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

The posters also claim the GOP passed 331 bills, codified 67 executive orders, and accomplished the “Total Defeat of Government Shutdown.”

Bloomberg News’ Erik Wasson added that “One of the accomplishments is passing 3 out of 12 annual spending bills that were due Oct. 1.”

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Image via Reuters

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