PizzaMan

Active Clubs are quickly expanding their presence in the United States, and one such group is wreaking havoc in a Tennessee mayoral race

The city of Franklin, Tennessee, has exploded into a political firestorm in the wake of an alliance between conservative mayoral candidate Gabrielle Hanson and a white supremacist “Active Club.”

Last week, Hanson arrived at a candidate forum with members of the Tennessee Active Club acting as her escort. Rolling Stone reported last month on Active Clubs, which are an emerging form of open-network groups that blend martial arts and combat training with white supremacist ideology. According to a report by the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), more than 46 of these clubs have been established in the United States since 2020, one of them in Tennessee. When the group arrived in Franklin, they claimed to be there to “protect” Hanson, a current alderman for the city. Brad Lewis, who has described himself as “an actual literal Nazi” and owns a gathering place and training center for the Active Club, told News Channel 5 that Hanson was a “friend” and that they came at her request.

The members of the Franklin Board of Mayor and Aldermen (save for Hanson) released a statement last Wednesday declaring they would not “tolerate any form of hatred, intimidation, or violence directed at our residents, media representatives, or anyone else attending or participating in the democratic process.”

Tuesday night, members of the board took Hanson to task in person, accusing her of sowing division and endangering the community. Hanson refused to condemn the group. “This is the old adage of ‘you reap what you sow,’” Hanson told the board, claiming the Active Club was in Franklin partially as a result of alleged discrimination against Christians. “You’ve planted seeds for years and years against our citizens, and they are coming to harvest, this is what the citizens of Franklin are getting because of bad decisions.”

“It’s easy to shift all the blame,” Hanson added. “I just happened to arrive at a time when everything was starting to crumble.”

Active Clubs are the brainchild of Robert Rundo, a California white supremacist who, after failing to launch one racist group and being charged with incitement of riots in the U.S., moved to Eastern Europe to craft what he calls “White Supremacy 3.0,” a style of white supremacist ideology that eschews flashy, aggressive public displays of past neo-Nazi movements. Active Clubs have also taken on a self-appointed status as a “stand-by militia,” primed for violent action.

Hanson claimed that the Tennessee Active Club came to Franklin because they were an “anti-antifa group” and “the dark web is showing massive antifa activity” in and around the city. At one point on Tuesday, Hanson referred to Brad Lewis, the “actual literal Nazi,” as her “client.”

“I’m a realtor, I’m not going to denounce anybody their right to be whatever it is that they want to be, whether I agree with what they do in their personal life or not,” she said, adding that “we don’t discriminate in this community” and that the Active Club “never laid a hand on anyone and they were very respectful while they were here.”

Alderman Matt Brown rebuffed Hanson, questioning the assertion that her relationship with the Tennessee Active Club was just a business. Brown pointed out that Hanson had publicly shared social media posts from the group, including screenshots of Telegram chats that contained the phrase “there is no political solution,” and accused Franklin’s current mayor of having antifa connections.

“We cannot allow this kind of hate to take hold in Franklin or else we have lost everything,” Brown said, before addressing Hanson directly. “Is it your mission to divide our city? Because you are doing a bang-up job of it right now.”

The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to review a challenge to its landmark New York Times v. Sullivan ruling. Justice Clarence Thomas has some thoughts.

The 1964 ruling established limits on public officials’ ability to sue on grounds of defamation, as well as the need to prove a standard of “actual malice” by the outlet making the allegedly defamatory statements.

The Supreme Court declined to hear Blankenship v. NBC Universal, LLC, a lawsuit brought by coal magnate Don Blankenship, who in 2015 was convicted of a misdemeanor charge of conspiring to violate safety standards at a Virginia mine where an explosion killed 29 workers. Blankenship was sentenced to a year in prison and fined $250,000. Last year, the Supreme Court upheld the conviction. Blankenship then sued NBC Universal, alleging that the news company had defamed him by describing him as a “felon.” Lower courts ruled that NBC had not acted with “malice” in their statements, and the case was appealed to the Supreme Court.

While Justice Thomas concurred that Blankenship’s case did not require a ruling by the Supreme Court, he called for the justices to review the standard set by New York Times v. Sullivan “in an appropriate case.”

“I continue to adhere to my view that we should reconsider the actual-malice standard,” Thomas wrote,” referencing his previous opinion in Coral Ridge Ministries Media, Inc. v. Southern Poverty Law Center. “New York Times and the Court’s decisions extending it were policy-driven decisions masquerading as constitutional law,” he added, “the actual-malice standard comes at a heavy cost, allowing media organizations and interest groups ‘to cast false aspersions on public figures with near impunity.’”

The push from Thomas comes amid widespread media reporting on allegations of corruption and improper financial relationships involving the justice. A series of investigations by ProPublica and The New York Times have uncovered unreported gifts, real estate deals, and luxury perks given to Thomas by high-profile conservative figures — many of which were not reported in financial disclosures, or weighed as conflicts of interest in relevant cases.

In April, ProPublica reported on the extent of Thomas’ relationship with billionaire Harlan Crow. The real estate mogul gifted Thomas frequent rides on private jets, vacations to luxury resorts, and trips on his superyachts. Crow also purchased $133,000 in real estate from Thomas, and footed private school tuition bills for a child Thomas was raising.

Subsequent reporting has exposed Thomas’ relationship with other powerful conservative players, including the Koch brothers, oil tycoon Paul “Tony” Novelly, H. Wayne Huizenga, the former owner of the Miami Dolphins, and investor David Sokol.

Thomas has claimed that the omissions from his financial statements were nothing more than oversights and that he had been advised that “this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable.”

How dare somebody work with the democrats to avoid a government shutdown. Absolutely disgraceful, preventing our economy from blowing up.

Friendly reminder:

https://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=1903

It is hypocritical to claim to be the party of law and order when you support sedition, the interference of elections, and violence against political enemies.

cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/[email protected]/t/488620

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