Column one

Inside the 3,000-square-foot suite on the top floor of the Disneyland Hotel’s Fantasy Tower, Harry Sidhu beamed as he surveyed the small group of Anaheim business leaders, consultants and politicians celebrating their return to power. Results from a bruising election filled the big-screen television behind the future mayor that night as supporters sipped wine and laughed amid red, white and blue balloons and small American flags. “Anaheim’s future is going to be bright going forward from here,” Sidhu told the group in a video of the event reviewed by The Times. “We are open for business!” Cheers filled the Blue Sky Suite, decorated with Midcentury Modern furniture and vintage renderings of Tomorrowland. Optimism flowed through impromptu speeches by Sidhu and two victorious councilmen like the flood of big-business cash that drove their campaigns. Left unspoken amid the applause, however, was that this November 2018 night also heralded the return of a small, secretive group of … [Read more...] about How Disney, a new mayor and a secret ‘cabal’ gained power over Anaheim

Updated at 10:54 a.m. ET on May 19, 2022. Three years ago, when a white-supremacist fanatic killed dozens of people in El Paso, Texas, the reaction from the right was unreserved condemnation . When another white-supremacist fanatic killed 10 people at a supermarket in a Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, last week, the reaction from some figures on the right was to acknowledge that the guy had a point about this whole “replacement” thing. Large sections of the manifesto attributed to the Buffalo shooter were plagiarized from the writings of the perpetrator of another racist massacre in Christchurch, New Zealand . Both share the premise that violence against nonwhite people is justified to prevent “white genocide” or the “replacement” of white Americans by nonwhite immigrants. As the alleged Buffalo shooter put it, he carried out the attack because “all black people are replacers just by existing in White countries.” I would offer to explain how Black people got to … [Read more...] about Conservatives Are Defending a Sanitized Version of ‘The Great Replacement’

Ten more people died in Assam’s devastating floods that affected 33.03 lakh people in 28 districts on Friday, while Silchar town in Cachar district remained submerged for the fifth consecutive day, official sources said. On Thursday, a population of 45.34 lakh in 30 districts had been affected by the deluge, according to the bulletin of the Assam State Management Disaster Authority (ASDMA). The rivers are showing a receding trend though the Brahmaputra at Dhubri and the Kopili in Nagaon are still flowing above the danger mark. After the death of 10 more people – two each from Barpeta, Dhubri, Karimganj and Udalguri districts and one death each from Cachar and Morigaon, the toll due to floods and landslides reached 118 since mid-May. The state government announced that it has engaged additional resources to the severely affected districts, especially Cachar and the two other districts in Barak Valley. Two drones have been deployed in Silchar for carrying out the flood inundation … [Read more...] about 10 More Die in Assam Floods; Silchar Under Water for 5th Day