Background Briefing: August 22, 2021
Pro-Trump White Nationalists Will Be Back at The Capitol Next Month in a Volatile Heightened Threat Environment
We begin with the terrorism advisory warning from the DHS that there is a heightened threat environment across the U.S. which coincided with a Trump supporter who live-streamed on Facebook for almost 6 hours a rant against Biden for allowing an invasion of immigrants from Afghanistan, echoing Fox News talking points as he threatened to blow up his pickup truck in front of the Library of Congress. Shane Burley, the author of Fascism Today: What It Is and How to End It and Why We Fight Essays on Fascism, Freedom, Resistance, and Surviving the Apocalypse, joins us to discuss his article at NBC News “Trump losing the 2020 election has only increased the chance of right-wing violence” which makes it clear that as militias and white supremacists groups like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers break up, lone wolves are more likely to strike out. With another pro-Trump rally at the nation’s Capitol coming up in September along with the 20th anniversary of 9/11, white nationalist organizations who feel politically powerless are more likely to turn to force, making the next month or so a very volatile period.
Afghanistan’s Refugee Crisis With 5.9 Million Already Displaced
Then we look into the refugee crisis in Afghanistan where up to 6 million people are already displaced as thousands jam the Kabul airport desperate to get out of the country while thousands more remain trapped behind Taliban lines. David Vine, a Professor of Anthropology at American University who is the lead author of a new study from the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University, “Creating Refugees: Displacement Caused by United States’ Post 9/11 Wars“, joins us to discuss his article at Business Insider, “After 20 years of destruction, the U.S. has a moral obligation to let in 1 million Afghan refugees.”