Calls for FBI to investigate Dana Rohrabacher’s meeting with Julian Assange grow

Just to be clear, I am an advocate of political and corporate transparency. So too, I would imagine, are many of Julian Assange's supporters.

Do you know who doesn't support transparency, though? Julian Assange.

Sure, he supports transparency for specific groups when doing so fits with his personal ideological agenda — the Democratic National Committee, the American military-industrial complex, etc. But a true advocate of transparency believes that all powerful institutions should be held accountable.

They are consistent.

Welcome to the Breitbart era: Steve Bannon’s former site is the new monarch of right-wing media

So in the midst of a national firestorm over neo-Nazis and neo-Confederates coming together under the banner of white nationalism to "Unite the Right" last weekend in Charlottesville, presidential adviser Steve Bannon, former publisher of Breitbart News,  the self-proclaimed "platform of the alt-right," decided out of the blue to call up Robert Kuttner of the liberal American Prospect to chew the fat. Kuttner told Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi that he believes Bannon when he says he forgot to say it was off the record and that he really saw it as "a candid strategy talk with a comrade." Kuttner said:

    [Bannon] simultaneously tries to make alliances with lefties on economic nationalism, while doubling down on the racist, anti-immigrant stuff, and assumes that people will naively work with him on selected issues and excuse his larger role. It's classic hubris.

Weeping Nazi started off as a “men’s rights activist,” which is no huge surprise

The white supremacist rally that turned violent — and then deadly — on Saturday was immediately documented by Vice News Tonight and its correspondent Elle Reeve, in a video documentary released on Monday. It wasn't just the turnaround speed that was impressive, but the level of access the Vice team got, largely due to the choice to embed with Christopher Cantwell, a self-appointed white supremacist leader whose big mouth and massive gun collection left an impression on the documentary's viewers.

Eight People Have Been Arrested for Pulling Down Durham’s Confederate Statue—There May Be More Soon

In the wake of the deadly violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, images of Confederate monuments being pulled from their platforms have taken off on social media. But no image stands out as strongly as that of the statue of a Confederate solider in Durham, North Carolina, collapsed in a crumpled heap after being torn down by a group of protesters on Monday. Now, days after the monument was ripped from its base, several protesters are facing charges, and local law enforcement says that more arrests could be on the way.

Rebel Media Has Lost 300 Advertisers In Past 3 Months: Group

Hundreds of businesses advertising on Canada's notorious Rebel Media website have pulled their ads within the past three months, according to an online campaign targeting ultra-right-wing websites.

The campaign, Sleeping Giants, told HuffPost Canada by Twitter that some 300 businesses have responded to public pressure to remove ads from the website that many argue incites hatred.

What if Western media covered Charlottesville the same way it covers other nations

If we talked about what happened in Charlottesville the same way we talk about events in a foreign country, here’s how Western media would cover it. Those quoted in the “story” below are fictional.

The international community is yet again sounding the alarm on ethnic violence in the United States under the new regime of President Trump. The latest flash point occurred this past weekend when the former Confederate stronghold of Charlottesville descended into chaos following rallies of white supremacist groups protesting the removal of statues celebrating leaders of the defeated Confederate states. The chaos turned deadly when Heather Heyer, a member of the white ethnic majority who attended the rally as a counterprotester, was killed when a man with neo-Nazi sympathies allegedly drove his car into a crowd.

White supremacist rallies are planned for at least nine cities this weekend — here’s what to expect

A few blocks away, I arrived at the edge of Emancipation Park, where the rally was supposed to have taken place, to find skirmishes already underway between right-wing extremists and members of the loose alliance known as AntiFa (for anti-fascist). Smoke billowed near the AntiFa contingent, perhaps from one of its own canisters, or maybe a so-called flash-bang hurled by police. It was all so chaotic, that it was difficult to understand what was taking place.

7 Years Before Russia Hacked the Election, Someone Did the Same Thing to Climate Scientists

One Saturday morning in June, two days after the president had announced his intention to withdraw the United States from the landmark Paris climate agreement, Michael Mann was tweeting about Donald Trump.

Mann, a Penn State professor who is one of the world’s most prominent climate scientists, was thinking about the daily barrage of revelations surrounding Russia’s efforts to help Trump win the previous year’s election. The hacked Democratic documents posted on WikiLeaks. The media craze over private emails that had been ripped out of context. Smear campaigns circulating on social media.

“#Russia #Wikileaks #HackedEmails #Sabotaged #ClimateAgreements,” tweeted Mann. “Why does this story sound so darned familiar?”

White privilege turned deadly in Charlottesville: How would police have reacted if a mob of angry black people had gathered there?

I offer the following thought experiment.

Last weekend, hundreds of white supremacists and other right-wing extremists descended upon the city of Charlottesville, Virginia. They planned their "Unite the Right" rally months ago on the internet and in other public forums. The organizers encouraged their followers to bring weapons to Charlottesville. Many did so.

On Friday night, hundreds of white supremacists marched through the city, torches in hand, channeling the brutality and evil of the American Ku Klux Klan and the Nazis of Hitler's Germany. These white supremacists encircled a black church and threatened to burn it down -- and by implication kill all the people inside. This same gang of thugs then surrounded a group of University of Virginia students and beat them.

The long history of civil rights protests making white people uncomfortable

President Trump has launched a three-day campaign against a group of mostly black NFL players who have chosen to kneel during the national anthem before football games to protest racism in America. On Friday, he said players who protest in this way should be fired and, when most NFL owners rallied in support of their players, Trump expressed support for a boycott of the league.