Hasta La Gadget!

WASHINGTON ― The anti-Muslim white supremacist charged with murdering two men in Portland, Oregon, when they intervened in his bigoted tirade at two teenagers is the kind of extremist that former Department of Homeland Security official Daryl Johnson worried about.

Eight years ago, working in the department’s now-defunct Extremism and Radicalization Branch, Johnson authored a memo intended to warn law enforcement about the threat posed by right-wing extremists. It wasn’t just the election of the first black president, he wrote, but the troubled economic situation, the divisive political climate, and angry rhetoric about immigrants and outsiders that could spark attacks. Right-wing extremists, he wrote, could capitalize on “racial and political prejudices” to reach a “wider audience of potential sympathizers.”

The backlash to Johnson’s 2009 memo was swift. Some conservatives portrayed it as an Obama administration attack on the tea party movement. Under political pressure, the administration backed away from the memo. They dismantled Johnson’s team. He left the government.

In the years since, the U.S. has seen several high-profile incidents of violence by right-wing extremists. The latest tragedy occurred last week with the stabbing deaths of Ricky John Best, 53, and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, 23, on a commuter train. A third man, 21-year-old Micah David-Cole Fletcher, was severely injured. Jeremy Christian, 35, has since been charged in the incident. The men had confronted Christian as he was harassing two teenage girls, one of whom was wearing a hijab. 

Christian left a long trail of hate online. His mother told HuffPost that her son, who had spent time in prison, had a habit of “spouting anti-establishment stuff.” At his first court appearance on Tuesday, he called for the death of the “enemies” of America. “You call it terrorism, I call it patriotism,” Christian said. “You hear me? Die.”

Johnson, now a security consultant, has fielded calls from reporters in the wake of other such attacks by domestic extremists. After a white supremacist killed six people at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin in 2012. After another white supremacist slaughtered African-American churchgoers in South Carolina. After militia extremists occupied a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon. After radicalized military veterans murdered police officers in Baton Rogue, Louisiana, and Dallas. After three members of a Crusaders militia were arrested for plotting an attack on Muslim immigrants in Kansas.

Rather than dialing back after President Donald Trump’s win, as some had predicted they would, domestic extremist groups seem to have been “emboldened” by the rhetoric of the 2016 election, Johnson told HuffPost. Friday’s attack in Portland, he said, highlights once again the federal government’s failure to take the threat of domestic terrorism seriously.

“This just re-emphasizes that we have an issue that has pretty much permeated the entire country, and yet the legislators and leadership in government either don’t recognize it, or are de-emphasizing it, or are not really playing close attention to it,” Johnson said.

On that point, he agrees with then-Attorney General Eric Holder, who told HuffPost in 2015 that the murder of black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, should serve as a “wake-up call” about the danger of domestic terrorism. Holder said America liked the fiction that the extremist threat arose solely from ideologies coming from outside the United States.

“We have a young man who apparently becomes radicalized as the result of an incident and becomes more radicalized as a result of what he sees on the internet, through the use of his computer, then goes and does something that by his own words apparently is a political, violent act,” Holder said at the time. “With a different set of circumstances, and if you had dialed in religion there, Islam, that would be called an act of terror.”

There’s a history of the U.S. government treading carefully when it comes to domestic extremists. During the Clinton administration, extremists seized on two deadly conflicts between federal agents and fringe groups ― in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992 and Waco, Texas, in 1993  ― to recruit and propagandize. Timothy McVeigh, who killed 168 people in Oklahoma City in 1995, was motivated by those incidents. Since then, the government has adopted a strategy of acting with what one former FBI hostage negotiator called “infinite patience” in direct standoffs with domestic extremists. Rhetorically, too, the government has largely avoided language that could heighten tensions with those groups. In some situations, like the wildlife refugee standoff in Oregon, that approach has generated criticism and accusations that the feds are appeasing extremists.

More recently, the government has taken some limited steps to address domestic extremists. In 2014, the Justice Department re-established the Domestic Terrorism Task Force, which had been set up in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing but allowed to go dormant after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. In 2015, the head of the department’s National Security Division said that domestic groups organizing online were a “real threat” to the United States and established the position of counsel for domestic terrorism matters. The counsel, former FBI official Thomas E. Brzozowski, said last year that extremists’ underlying ideology is “immaterial” to how the Justice Department approaches domestic terrorism.

The major hurdle that prosecutors face in the realm of domestic terrorism is that supporting such groups is largely protected by the Constitution. That’s not the case for those who back designated foreign terrorist groups: They can be hit with “material support” charges for a wide variety of activities, even tweeting support for foreign terrorists. 

Johnson noted that the government also puts a much greater emphasis on preventing attacks inspired by the Islamic State and al Qaeda and has assigned a lot more resources to those types of cases. But that doesn’t mean domestic extremists are any less of a threat, he said.

“If the government wanted to shift its focus and look at other types of domestic terrorist groups and individuals, if they decided, ‘Hey, that’s a priority of ours,’ they could pump out as many cases on the right-wing side,” Johnson said. “It’s just a matter of priorities and budget and resources.”

It is, of course, a tall order for the federal government to track every self-radicalized lone wolf in the country. Still, FBI stings aimed at right-wing extremists have been rare. And some cases against domestic organizations, like the Hutaree militia in Michigan and the anti-government forces that took over the Oregon wildlife refuge have been unsuccessful, with prosecutors facing skepticism from judges and juries that is rarely seen in cases against Muslim extremists. (There are also successful prosecutions: Alaska extremist Schaeffer Cox received 25 years, while senior citizens in a Georgia militia got sentences in the range of five to 10 years.)

The federal government doesn’t make much of an effort to really keep an eye on domestic extremists, according to Ryan Lenz, a senior investigative reporter for the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project.

“It seems that the federal government is very reluctant to call American citizens terrorists, even when their actions meet the definition of what terrorism is,” said Lenz. “It’s much easier to assign that label of terrorist to someone who is Muslim and comes from a foreign country than someone who is American and looks like people in Congress.”

It’s not just the government, Johnson said, it’s the way cases are treated by the media as well. There would be a lot more reporting on the Portland attack if it had been committed by a Muslim, he contended, and it likely would have been national news for days. 

What is it going to take for them to step up and actually recognize the threat for what it is?
Daryl Johnson, former Department of Homeland Security official

When an attack is committed by a Muslim, Johnson said, “everybody gets real spun up, and there’s a lot more news coverage, and you have all of these counterterrorism consultants all over the news talking about the threat of Muslim extremists. You don’t get that same attention and that same response from the public or these counterterrorism officials or the government over these similar incidents that were hate-motivated.”

For now, Johnson predicts the government will continue to aggressively target sympathizers of Muslim extremist groups with sting operations and pay only lip service to the idea of tackling homegrown terrorism.

“That’s just the government’s stances and its policy, wanting to reinforce the war on terror. So we’re going to target these ISIS supporters and do these sting operations against people we feel are being sympathetic towards ISIS and al Qaeda,” Johnson said.

In the short term at least, he’s not very hopeful that the government will launch a similarly dedicated effort to combat domestic extremists.

“We’re already behind on resources and attention given to domestic terrorists, and now we’ve got even more emerging from different sides of the political spectrum,” Johnson said. “Right now, the picture in my opinion is bleak.”

He also had some urgent words for those critics in Congress who attacked his 2009 memo.

“I would say it’s never too late to reconsider your stance on how serious this threat is,” Johnson said. “We’ve seen the threat grow and grow year after year, and here we are eight years removed and incident after incident has pretty much validated the analysis in that report. What is it going to take for them to step up and actually recognize the threat for what it is?”

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Multiple news outlets are now reporting that President Donald Trump is set to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Accord, the landmark pact to reduce global warming.

While environmentalists are warning that is very bad news for many reasons, bringing the world far closer to the “danger limit” where extreme conditions become the norm, it could be particularly harmful to women around the world. Here’s why:

Women are more likely to live in poverty.

Women make up the majority of the world’s poor, and that simple fact means they are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change ― particularly if they live in rural areas. That’s because women tend to be responsible for securing water, food and energy for cooking, and the effects of climate change ― namely drought and/or uncertain rainfall ― make that process and responsibility all the much more onerous for them. 

“In almost all disasters, women bear the brunt more than men. Anytime there are mass movements, which is what happens when you have famine, floods, fires and other disasters, women are more vulnerable, women end up doing much of the physical labor of gathering and preparing food, fuel and water,” Dr. Richard Jackson, a professor at the Fielding School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles, told HuffPost. 

“Climate change very much visits its greatest impact on the poor worldwide,” he added. “Wealthy people can move. Wealthy people during Hurricane Katrina could get in their cars and drive off. It’s always the poor that bear the biggest brunt of any kind of threat or disaster.”

When natural resources disappear, women are less likely to get an education.

When biodiversity declines and fresh water sources disappear as a result of climate change, it is often women world-wide who have to attempt to pick up the pieces. And that means that in some communities, they must dedicate a significant portion of their day to finding clean water or collecting wood the UN says ― time they might otherwise have spent getting an education.

“Girls are sometimes kept home from school to help gather fuel, perpetuating the cycle of disempowerment,” the group says, showing just how many ways climate change touches on women’s lives. 

They are also more likely to die from natural disasters.

A startling 2007 study found that women are much more likely than men to be killed in natural disasters, and that natural disasters also lower the life expectancy of women more than men. The reasons for that are complex: partly, it’s because of biological, physiological differences. So pregnant women, for example, are less likely to be able to rescue themselves in a natural disaster. But cultural and social norms play a bigger role, the study’s authors argue. Women may be more likely to look after relatives or to the home during an emergency, which means they do not put themselves first. They point to other research that suggests that even wearing traditional clothing, like a sari, has been known to put women at greater risk, because it impedes their movement. 

Not only that, but when social order breaks down as it sometimes does after natural disasters, women and children are the ones who are most vulnerable to things like rape and abuse, Jackson said. 

“When social order breaks down and people become out of control, the most vulnerable and the weakest are the ones that suffer the most,” he said.

Pregnancy can make women particularly vulnerable.

First and foremost, pregnant women are more likely to be affected by extreme heat events, like heat waves or long, extended hot seasons, Jackson said.

But climate change can have an affect on pregnant women in other ways, too. For example, it is looking increasingly likely that climate change may have helped drive the spread of Zika, the virus that can cause birth defects and possibly miscarriage, too. And climate change can exacerbate environmental problems that put pregnant women at risk.

“Air pollutants can cause respiratory illness in pregnant women and also lead to low birth weight or pre-term birth,” a fact sheet from Carnegie Mellon University explains. “Climate change worsens air quality because warming temperatures make it easier for ground-level ozone to form.”

Saving the planet is quite literally in everyone’s best inerest, but it’s worth remembering that it’s often those who are already most vulnerable who are impacted first.

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While President Donald Trump mulls his rumored plan to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change, others are apparently considering their own exit ― from Trump.

Among them is Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of SpaceX, Tesla and a growing number of other startups. 

Musk said Wednesday that if Trump pulls the U.S. out of the landmark international accord on combating climate change, he’ll have no option but to resign from his role on Trump’s business advisory council.

“Don’t know which way Paris will go, but I’ve done all I can to advise directly to POTUS, through others in WH & via councils, that we remain,” Musk tweeted Wednesday, using the acronym for president of the United States. 

Asked by a Twitter follower how he might react if Trump does decide to leave, Musk didn’t shy away: “Will have no choice but to depart councils in that case,” he said.

Musk has taken heat for agreeing to serve the White House in an advisory role. In the past, he’s rebuffed critics by arguing his presence is “doing good.” Indeed, he has used the position to advocate for immigrants and environmental issues.

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White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer had an eyebrow-raising explanation for a curious tweet sent by President Donald Trump that featured a nonsense word.

Trump tweeted “covfefe” late Tuesday night, seemingly attempting to write the word “coverage” in a tweet critical of the press.

He eventually deleted the tweet and joked about the meaning of the made-up word, telling his followers to “Enjoy!”

But when asked about the implications of the president’s late-night tweeting, Spicer refused to admit the word was an innocent human error, instead commenting that “the president and a small group of people know exactly what he meant.”

Trump and the White House press office are no strangers to typos and poor messaging.

Spicer has been under fire after a string of mishaps in recent weeks. At the daily White House press briefing on Tuesday, he struggled to provide any actual information to reporters who asked about climate change, his team’s ties to Russia, health care legislation and more.

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One woman’s story shows just how diverse the Chinese community actually is. 

Paula Williams Madison, a retired NBC Universal executive who’s Jamaican-Chinese-American, decided to begin actively looking years ago for ties to her Chinese grandfather, Samuel Lowe. In 2012, her search led her back to Lowe’s home country, where she not only learned about his backstory but also finally connected with her Asian relatives.  

The emotional journey is the subject of the 2014 documentary, “Finding Samuel Lowe,” which is currently streaming online for free until June 13 on PBS.org. In it, it’s clear that Madison’s Asian heritage has become a crucial part of her identity. 

“It felt like a hole in my heart and my soul has finally been filled,” told CNN of meeting her Chinese family members, who are of the Hakka ethnic group. 

Madison, who was raised in Harlem by her Jamaican-Chinese mother Nell, said she often asked about her family’s past but details were scarce. Lowe, a shopkeeper in Kingston, last saw Nell when she was about 3 years old, ABC News reported. He allegedly left Kingston and returned to China, where he died. 

Armed with the little information she had on Lowe, Madison chipped away at her heritage on genealogy websites, uncovering more about the grandfather’s immigration to Jamaica and past as a sugar plantation worker, according to Poynter. She ended up with a huge lead after attending a Hakka conference in Toronto, where she met scholar Keith Lowe, another Chinese-Jamaican with her grandfather’s last name. She asked him to help attempt to connect her with her family in China. 

Sure enough, the scholar reached out his family and gave Madison some eye-opening news ― his uncle’s father was Lowe, ABC News reported. 

Madison made the trip to China later that year and met with her Chinese relatives. Today, she’s close with her Chinese family members and visits the country often. She said she feels comfortable in the country. 

“(When I’m there) I’m very happy,” she told CNN. “I don’t feel like a foreigner. I’m feeling very at home.”

While Madison’s story is a rare one, her Jamaican-Chinese background isn’t all that uncommon. Hakka people, who hail mostly from South China, arrived in Jamaica in four main batches beginning around 1854. The Chinese Benevolent Association of Jamaica points out that although most Chinese immigrants who came to the country weren’t “coolies,” or indentured servants, those who arrived early were in fact brought there due to the “coolie” trade. They later established a social infrastructure that allowed for more migrants to follow. 

Chinese workers were initially brought to the country to fill a labor gap that opened up when the European slave trade with western and central Africa drew to a close. While these contract laborers were paid, they lived and worked in poor conditions, often similar to what slaves were subjected to. 

Several other waves of Chinese immigrants followed, many as workers from from other parts of the Caribbean, establishing a chain of migration. And by the late 19th to early 20th century, when they became a significant part of the local retail sector. 

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