Our picksTexas: A Disaster Foretold | Terrorist-Reporting App | The Future of QAnon, and more

Published 24 February 2021

·  Neo-Nazi Terrorists Planned Fortified Compound in Michigan

·  Generation Identity: France Begins Shutting Down Far-Right Group

·  Families of Pensacola Terror Attack Victims Sue Saudi Arabia

·  Far-Right Incidents Surge in German Military

·  New App Launched for Reporting Terrorist Material as Extremists ‘Exploit Pandemic’

·  Nuclear Warfare or Cyber Warfare: Which Is the Bigger Threat?

·  Inside the New $65 Million Push from Progressives to Compete with Conservative Media

·  The Future of QAnon, Explained by 8 Experts

·  Texas Failed in 3 Big Ways

·  The Texas Blackout Is the Story of a Disaster Foretold

Neo-Nazi Terrorists Planned Fortified Compound in Michigan  (Ben Makuch, Vice)
In the same state where an anti-government militia plotted to kidnap the governor, a separate group of neo-Nazi terrorists hatched their own plot: Establishing a white nationalist, heavily armed, and fortified “community” to launch the so-called race war. At the center of it all was Justen Watkins, 25, a former leader of the Base—the domestic terror group under the shadow of a persistent FBI crackdown—now awaiting trial in Michigan. Following a joint FBI and Michigan State Police investigation, Watkins was charged with gang membership for his association with the Base and using computers to commit a felony. (Part of those charges stem from a December 2019 incident, where Watkins allegedly attempted to intimidate and threaten the life of an antifascist activist.) According to secret chats obtained by VICE News between known accelerationist neo-Nazis, a subset of the far right that believes terrorism will hasten the collapse of the U.S. government, Watkins claimed he was going to be purchasing and occupying land in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, not far from where he was eventually arrested. “We are buying houses and land and fortifying them,” said Watkins under an alias on the encrypted chat app, Wire, in early 2020. “Land is cheap […]  I’m setting up a community up there. Going to have houses set up to get guys moved in and situated.

Generation Identity: France Begins Shutting Down Far-Right Group  (James Kleinfeld, Al Jazeera)
France is beginning the process of shutting down the far-right Generation Identity (GI) group, a move that comes after Al Jazeera’s undercover investigation exposed the group’s racism, violence, and connections with Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party. On Saturday, dozens in Paris rallied against the move – scheduled to begin Monday – some of whom wore blue vests emblazoned with the words “Génération Identitaire”, the French name of the group which advocates for “defending the identity and culture of white Europeans” and decries what it calls the “great replacement” by immigration and “Islamisation”.