memeorandum: The Most Dangerous American Idea (Adam Serwer/The Atlantic)

11:25 AM ET, August 5, 2019

Top Items:

Terminating Service for 8Chan — The mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio are horrific tragedies. In the case of the El Paso shooting, the suspected terrorist gunman appears to have been inspired by the forum website known as 8chan. Based on evidence we've seen …

New York Post:

The Post urges Trump to take action on assault weapons — Two mass shootings within 24 hours in El Paso and Dayton, days after the Garlic Festival killings. Three months after Virginia Beach, six months after Aurora, nine months after Thousand Oaks, 10 months after Tree of Life …

Discussion: National Review, Washington Post, Reason, Variety, Daily Wire, Deadline, The Week, The Wrap, Mediaite, CNN and Associated Press, more at Mediagazer »

New York Times:

El Paso Shooting Suspect's Manifesto Echoes Trump's Language — At campaign rallies before last year's midterm elections, President Trump repeatedly warned that America was under attack by immigrants heading for the border. “You look at what is marching up, that is an invasion!” he declared at one rally.

New York Times:

We Have a White Nationalist Terrorist Problem — America's leaders need to do more to condemn and combat the extremist ideology — white nationalism — in their midst. — The editorial board represents the opinions of the board, its editor and the publisher. It is separate from the newsroom and the Op-Ed section.

Discussion: American Prospect, RedState, Vox, USA Today, Daily Wire, Shareblue Media, CNN, ABC News, The Week, Slate, The Atlantic, UPI, Refinery29 and The Moderate Voice, more at Techmeme »

Tom Scocca / Slate:

Where Taking the Concerns of Racists Seriously Has Gotten Us — Within last week's story of how Ronald Reagan made a racist phone call to Richard Nixon, there was a second story—a parable, effectively: a small point that contained a much larger point. It had nothing, or almost nothing …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money, more at Mediagazer »

Devlin Barrett / Washington Post:

FBI faces skepticism over its efforts against domestic terrorism — The FBI insists it is fully engaged in combating the threat of violence from white supremacists, but some former federal officials charge that the government is still coming up short in the face of a strain of American terrorism that now seems resurgent.

Discussion: Townhall, The Week, New York Post and Talking Points Memo

Washington Post:

A mother died shielding her infant in El Paso. The father died shielding them both, family says. — They had just dropped their oldest daughter off at cheerleading practice when they pulled into the Walmart parking lot, packed with hundreds of back-to-school shoppers like them.

Discussion: KTLA, One America News Network, The Week and CNN

New York Times:

White Extremist Ideology Drives Many Deadly Shootings — White extremist ideology has been linked to at least four of the 10 deadliest active-shooter episodes in the United States in recent years, showing the potential for intense violence among adherents who congregate online to cheer on racist attacks.

Emily Larsen / Washington Examiner:
Confusion: Biden offers sympathy for the ‘tragic events in Houston today and also in Michigan’

Discussion: The Daily Caller, The Week, New York Post, Mediaite and The Gateway Pundit

Katherine Faulders / ABC News:
Trump says US must condemn ‘white supremacy’ and ‘racism’ in wake of weekend shootings

Discussion: USA Today, NPR, ThinkProgress and Breitbart

George P. Bush / The Atlantic: White-Nationalist Terrorism Must Be Stopped

Timothy Bella / Washington Post:
Politicians blame video games for the El Paso shooting. It's an old claim that's not backed by research.

Discussion: Axios, The Independent, Slate and One America News Network

John Wagner / Washington Post:
Trump condemns white supremacy, focuses on combating mental illness over new gun-control measures

Discussion: Balloon Juice, The Guardian, Slate and Politico

Kathleen Belew / New York Times: The Right Way to Understand White Nationalist Terrorism

John Wagner / Washington Post:
Republican state lawmaker in Nebraska says his party is ‘enabling white supremacy’

Discussion: Politico and The Hill

Philip Rucker / Washington Post:
‘How do you stop these people?’: Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric looms over El Paso massacre

Wall Street Journal:
The Killers in Our Midst — Nearly all mass shooters …

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Daniel W. Drezner / Washington Post:
America's head of state, M.I.A.

Discussion: Politico, The North Star and Breitbart

David Frum / The Atlantic:
The American Exception

Discussion: Chicago Sun-Times and Outside the Beltway

Kevin Roose / New York Times:
8chan, Megaphone for Gunmen, Has Gone Dark. ‘Shut the Site Down,’ Says Its Creator.

Discussion: RedState, Vox, New York Times, USA Today, VICE, MIT Technology Review, The Week, Daily Wire, The Guardian, The Wrap, Washington Post, CNN, Talking Points Memo, Hullabaloo, The Trace, Instapundit, Quartz, Law & Crime, Slate and Deadline, more at Techmeme »

Associated Press:

Classmates: Ohio shooter kept a ‘hit list’ and a ‘rape list’ — DAYTON, Ohio (AP) — High school classmates of the gunman who killed nine people early Sunday in Dayton, Ohio, say he was suspended for compiling a “hit list” of those he wanted to kill and a “rape list” of girls he wanted to sexually assault.

Discussion: KTLA, The Guardian, Associated Press, The Week and Denver Post

Jessica McBride / Heavy.com:

Connor Betts: Twitter Posts on Being a Leftist, Guns — Connor Betts, the Dayton, Ohio mass shooter, was a self-described “leftist,” who wrote that he would happily vote for Democrat Elizabeth Warren, praised Satan, was upset about the 2016 presidential election results, and added …

Christina Schaefer / WRGT:

Police: Suspect's sister among those killed in Oregon District shooting — BELLBROOK, Ohio (WKEF/WRGT) — Dayton Police, the FBI and Bellbrook Police have descended upon a neighborhood in Bellbrook in connection with the deadly mass shooting in the Oregon District.

Discussion: Heavy.com, The Daily Caller, Slate and Associated Press

CNN:
The Dayton shooter wore a mask, bulletproof vest and hearing protection as he opened fire, police chief says

Discussion: daytondailynews, Washington Post, VICE, The Root, Lawyers, Guns & Money, WTVR-TV, KTLA, The Last Refuge, NPR, WGN-TV, The Week, WPSD Local 6WPSD Local 6, Foreign Policy, Right Wing Watch, UPI, Variety, WPIX 11 New York, Daily Kos, Townhall and Mediaite

E.J. Dionne Jr / Washington Post:
On guns and white nationalism, one side is right and one is wrong

Discussion: Refinery29, NBC News and UPI

David French / National Review:
It's Time to Declare War on White-Nationalist Terrorism

Discussion: NB Blog, CNN, PJ Media Home and The Atlantic

Trip Gabriel / New York Times:

Steve King Narrowly Won in Iowa in 2018. Now His Challenger Will Run Again. — J. D. Scholten, a Democrat who nearly toppled Representative Steve King of Iowa in a heavily Republican district in 2018, will announce on Monday that he will run again for the seat in 2020.

Discussion: YouTube, The Atlantic, Washington Times and Political Wire

Jonathan Martin / New York Times:

A Fourth Texas Republican Congressman Plans to Retire in 2020 — Representative Kenny Marchant of Texas is planning to announce his retirement on Monday, according to two Republican officials, becoming the fourth Republican House member from Texas in recent weeks to head for the exits rather …

Discussion: Washington Post, Politico, Talking Points Memo and Outside the Beltway

The Texas Tribune:
U.S. Rep. Kenny Marchant will not seek reelection, marking the fourth recent GOP retirement in Texas

Discussion: Roll Call and Shareblue Media

Jeffrey Goldberg / The Atlantic:

He's Getting Worse — The current, and (to date) most debased, phase of the Trump presidency—the phase that includes the unceasing demonization of minority legislators and the endorsement of North Korean communism—began, in retrospect, on May 8, in the Florida Panhandle, at a rally in Panama City.

Washington Post:

Markets plunge after China lets currency fall to a decade low in payback against Trump's tariffs — BEIJING — China mounted a counteroffensive Monday to new U.S. tariffs by allowing its tightly controlled currency to slide to an 11-year low, a move that could further provoke the ire of President Trump …

Adam Serwer / The Atlantic:

The Most Dangerous American Idea — Last week, the historian Timothy Naftali revealed a 1971 conversation between Richard Nixon, then the president of the United States, and Ronald Reagan, then the governor of California, in which Reagan referred to African UN delegates as “monkeys” who are “still uncomfortable wearing shoes.”

Discussion: Big Think and Daily Kos

National Review:

Crush This Evil — Yesterday, in the Texan border town of El Paso, a young white supremacist opened fire at a Walmart, killing 20 people and injuring dozens more. His intention, per a manifesto he left on the website 8chan, was to exact revenge against “the Hispanic invasion of Texas,” …

Discussion: The American Spectator, Patterico's Pontifications and Balloon Juice

Rebecca Klar / The Hill:
Scarborough says Trump donors are financing white supremacy

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, twitchy.com and Breitbart

Allyson Chiu / Washington Post:

‘Do something!’: Ohio governor drowned out by angry chants at Dayton shooting vigil — Microphone in hand, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) had just finished remarking on the size of the crowd that was crammed tightly into the brick-covered main street of the Oregon District in Dayton, Ohio, on Sunday night when a single voice rang out.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo