From the Southern Poverty Law Center (emphasis mine):
...Rumors abound on white nationalist forums that Kessler’s ideological pedigree before 2016 was less than pure and seem to point to involvement in the Occupy movement and past support for President Obama.The SPLC page also states:
At one recent speech in favor of Charlottesville’s status as a sanctuary city, Kessler live-streamed himself as an attendee questioned him and apologized for an undisclosed spat during Kessler’s apparent involvement with Occupy. Kessler appeared visibly perturbed by the woman’s presence and reminders of their past association.
Kessler himself has placed his “red-pilling” around December of 2013 when a PR executive was publicly excoriated [NYT] for a tasteless Twitter joke about AIDS in Africa.
Regarding the incident, Kessler stated '… so it was just a little race joke, nothing that big of a deal, she didn’t have that many followers, she probably didn’t think anybody was gonna see it,'
Regardless of Kessler’s past politics, the rightward shift in his views was first put on display in November, 2016 when his tirade against Wes Bellamy began....
...Arrest records indicate that Kessler was convicted in 2005 for shoplifting, obstructing justice and for a string of failures to appear and register, in addition to numerous traffic violations and citations....On a different web page (August 14, 2017), Zero Hedge offers the following screenshot (Click directly on the image to enlarge it):
At the same post, Zero Hedge also offers the following:
Nothing smells right about any of this. In fact, Lee Stranahan has connected the “Unite the Right” rally to an identical Neo-Nazi movement in Ukraine supported by John McCain and Hillary Clinton.
POLITICAL THEATER!
And...
Excellent work. Why does this not surprise me? Add to that the cast of characters in Charlotte VA willing to participate in this nasty game of anarchy. But it will be up to the bloggers to figure this out, not the media.
ReplyDeleteI need to get a larger size tin foil hat.
ReplyDeleteOf course CNN will investigate this and tell us what we should think.
I don't discount anything out of hand, but we all have to be careful to not fall down the rabbit hole.
ReplyDeleteRegardless of the pedigree of the organizers, they attracted racists from all over.
The real game here is to smear all white conservatives with the "white nationalist" or "alt-right" slur.
The simplest and easiest thing to do is back away from the racists and don't get sucked in. They are horrible people.
SF,
DeleteIt's all too weird.
I saw something very similar back in the late 60s and backed away as fast as I could.
No one thing tipped me off.
But the day that the "Anti-Establishment" crowd at college was taking up a collection for Charlie -- Manson, that is -- I said, "Enough!
SF,
DeleteThe real game here is to smear all white conservatives with the "white nationalist" or "alt-right" slur.
That's one part of the game, but not the entire game, IMO.
Ed,
DeleteActually, I did not cite the real tinfoil stuff.
Entryism has always been a traditional Left-wing tactic...
DeleteThe Racists have been with us since the beginning. They don't hide, nor double speak. They enjoy their white outfits. It is the Antifa that are the horrible people for we don't know what mask they wear. I would disagree with SF. The Antifa are as dangerous if not more so.
Delete“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero
Agree SF. That is my point. No surprise. Do we really know what the antifa component was /is comprised of? Who is supporting it? I don't believe that they were not getting ready for this as well. I don't believe it was a false flag, but I do think they are willing to give us a head fake. Nazis, KKK, having been marching for ac couple of decades without a problem for the most part. Now all of a sudden we have the antifa.
DeleteWhat, "all of a sudden"? Antifa has been around in its present form since the 80's.
DeleteThe Klan has been marching for a lot more than decades. Check out their patriotic march in Washington in 1925. We had come a long way but Trump seems to have intentionally kicked over a rock.
This "both sides" stuff is nonsense. Trump goes on about the poor Klansmen being rushed by Antifa wielding clubs.
Where are the injuries? The only clubs I've seen were wielded against a defenseless black kid in a parking garage.
Where are the casualties. A few Klansman pepper sprayed maybe.
Face it, the right is not doing itself any favors by trying spin this.
President Trump said "Poor klansmen?" Give us the quote or STFU.
DeleteBunkerville,
DeleteI don't believe it was a false flag, but I do think they are willing to give us a head fake.
Head fake? Yeah, that fits.
Sleight of hand.
Smoke and mirrors.
If an agent provocateur lures a large crowd of authentic bone-heads, the authenticity of the bone-heads does not detract from the false flag.
Delete"President Trump said "Poor klansmen?" Give us the quote or STFU."
DeleteNo quote, but I think David Duke heard that sentiment pretty unambiguously. Whether by accident or design, it counts as aid and comfort IMO.
Jez,
DeleteSince before the election, we have had armed leftwing fascists beating people in the streets, and now we have white nationalists, or whatever they call themselves, jumping in.
Trump supporters were beaten bloody in the streets in several cities during the election.
It counts as "aid and comfort" to YOU, because YOU are pleased to view life through the same ideologically distorted prism as the rest of the leftists who have been craftily hypnotized by systematic mideducation into trashing Western Civiization for over a hundred years.
DeleteSF, I'm not up to speed on the anti-Trump violence. How do you rate this round up? Is it complete and accurate? http://dailycaller.com/2017/06/16/this-list-of-attacks-against-conservatives-is-mind-blowing/
DeleteFT, interestingly a prism has the remarkable facility to separate white light into its constituent colours. The use of spectroscopy (literally and, in this case, metaphorically) can decidedly enhance our ability to make sense of the world.
PRISM
Deletenoun
GEOMETRY
a solid geometric figure whose two end faces are similar, equal, and parallel rectilinear figures, and whose sides are parallelograms.
OPTICS
a glass or other transparent object in prism form, especially one that is triangular with refracting surfaces at an acute angle with each other and that separates white light into a spectrum of colors.
IN FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
The term "prism" relates to the clarification or distortion afforded by a particular viewpoint.
"They were forced to interpret the impact and significance of the event through the prism of tele-journalism."
Jez, It's not a matter of keeping score, or who is right and who is wrong.
DeleteI simply point out that leftwing violence happened and is happening, but it doesn't attract the sensational attention rightwing violence has.
Violent leftwing fascists styling themselves with the Orwellian moniker "antifascists" SHUT DOWN a traditional Portland parade when they threatened to attack country GOP officials participating in the parade.
They weren't fighting fascists, not Nazis, not white supremacists... GOP politicians! Think the equivalent of Margaret Thatcher or John Major, hardly the next coming of Hitler.
I am not justifying rightwing hatred, bigotry, or violence, merely pointing out that our Infotainment Media Complex is not giving us the whole picture and their reportage lacks context.
I charitably chalk it up to their natural leftish biases (93% of the press admit to being Democrat and/or liberal) and their visceral hatred of Donald Trump (who keeps handing them ammo).
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/04/27/portland-rose-parade-canceled-after-antifascists-threaten-gop-marchers/?utm_term=.243e0f0e9b07
SF,
DeleteYes, it is all about perceptions and protected groups.
I'm not keeping score, just trying to get a sense of scale. ... Maybe that is keeping score, but I still think it's a useful to do, up to a point.
DeleteTo one as wary of nationalism and suspicious of even patriotism as I, it is easy to imagine the right's violence as offensive and the left's violence as defensive. Honesty compels me to recognise my bias there -- that's why a modest amount of "keeping score" might be a good idea, how else can I guard my own bias?
Leftwing fascists pre-emptively threatening a parade because Republican politicians will be there is offensive, not defensive.
DeleteStudents attacking a non-inflammatory academic speaker and his very liber professor host at a college lecture is not defensive; its offensive.
:P
ReplyDeletePenned today by one of my FB friends -- and one who knows history and sees the trends we're watching right now:
ReplyDeleteUnder the Weimar Republic in Germany, the streets were increasingly filled with brawls between socialists and Communists on the one side, and fascists on the other. In the end, the fascists won, and Germany became a very ugly place. A look at the Soviet Union tells us that had the left won, Germany would still have been a cesspool of misery.
Our streets are starting to look like those of the Weimar Republic. I am not interested in the viewpoints of those who engage in political violence. Such actions are un-American and undemocratic. Rather than relying on the democratic tools of persuasion and the ballot box, they seek to impose their will on us through violence. Because our views are unworthy, because we are class enemies, untermenschen, Trotskyite deviationists, while males, black females, whatever. They wish to terrorize the vast peace-loving masses of the nation into silence.
So do not be silent. Denounce political violence whenever it rears its ugly head. That means Nazis, Antifa, or just those people who really don't want a big shopping center down on the corner. And demand that the authorities, who work for you, stop it in its tracks. There should be zero tolerance for masked demonstrators, hitting, punching, whaling, whacking, thrashing, or poking. Until they people get tired of jail food and go find jobs.
Nationalism in general use today, unlike "patriotism", implies the inferiority of other nations.
ReplyDeleteIt's not nearly as innocent as you state.
It implies a belief that one lives in the nation with the most liberty and opportunities to pursue a better life. The country that achieves THAT end inspires patriotism and is, for all practical purposes "superior" to all others.
ReplyDelete...but then, I'm sure you'd argue that ALL countries are equal and NONE are "inferior". Right, Duck? North Korea is as equally "superior" as Australia....
ReplyDeleteEarlier in this thread, SF said to Bunkerville:
ReplyDeleteI was merely cautioning against falling into the trap of excuse-making for racists.
Let me be unambiguous.
I do not have the time of day for racists or for race-based identity politics.
Nor do I have the time of day for making excuses for racists.
But something doesn't smell right with how the battle lines formed last Saturday in Charlottesville.
Just a few moments ago, I was cleaning out my email backlogs in my personal email account.
And, lo! One notification from the WaPo was dated August 10 (the article having been written on August 9). And the article was all about ginning up "the coming clash in Charlottesville."
No wonder that people from far away states showed up to do battle. No wonder that the media descended on Charlottesville like swarms of locusts.
I posit that the very presence of the media directly affected what happened last Saturday.
I never thought otherwise.
DeleteWe have several issues here:
1. The pedigree of Kessler is a trivial sideshow, imo.
Regardless, real racists showed up
Also, yes, the antifa street fascists showed up as well. Both sides brought clubs, shields and other weaponry. This had been going on all over the US.
So far, all unremarkable.
Here's where I and others, including you, have questions:
Why didn't Hillary Boy McAuliff call out the National Guard ahead of time. The police intel network predicted this would happen.
Why did the city and the police structure the march and counterprotest like they did? Why no separation?
Why no freaking barriers for crying out loud??? That's crowd control/crowd protection 101.
Why did the cops march the white nationalist out through a gauntlet of violent leftwing hatred?
SF,
DeleteDo you mean if minorities were protesting the removal of civil war statues?
That is quite a thought experiment!
We know the answer, don't we?
SF,
DeleteI never thought otherwise.
Thank you for your vote of confidence.
As you know, I'm the type of person who plows through reams of material to do research. That's my bread and butter -- and my nature.
All of your questions are important:
Why didn't Hillary Boy McAuliff call out the National Guard ahead of time. The police intel network predicted this would happen.
Why did the city and the police structure the march and counterprotest like they did? Why no separation?
Why no freaking barriers for crying out loud??? That's crowd control/crowd protection 101.
Why did the cops march the white nationalist out through a gauntlet of violent leftwing hatred?
The answers: manipulation of the situation so as to attain a particular outcome.
And the manipulation is still ongoing -- on the part of the media and others.
Why did the police stand down when they knew they were outgunned?
DeleteFunny, I haven't read anywhere that armed people brandished weapons or threatened the police in any way...
DeleteIn fact, news reports say they were doing the work the cops just wouldn't do and were breaking up fights.
Nostradumbass:
Delete"Why did the police stand down when they knew they were outgunned?"
Evidently, The Virginia State Police deny that they were outgunned and deny that any caches of weapons were recovered, (as per Terry McAuliffe).
Ducky, must suck to be you, tool.
I love it when I make a great comment about how the totalitarian left operates, and then Ducky comes along to illustrate the point.
ReplyDeleteOnly an America-hating leftist would read "inferiority" into it (curious he would use that word.)
So Ducky, are you saying America is no better than Burkina Faso or your socialist paradise of Venezuela?
Please elaborate.
Ducky,
ReplyDeleteno worries. When the Ministry of Truth sends us the customer survey, we'll give you a good rating. Spouting such lies and idiocy with a straight face is worth something.
Yes, silverfiddle, that is clearly what I meant.
ReplyDeleteI feel like Winston in the basement of Miniluv.
You're O'Brien
ReplyDeleteNationalism as a set of policies is not inherently racist. I've enjoyed Farmer's remarks against globalist economics -- I'm not convinced (his arguments are usually sound but I can perceive globalism's advantages too) but he's caught my ear and I'm giving it a lot of thought. So a non-racist Nationalism is possible, but I think it takes some effort: it seems to me like racism exists lower down on a moderately slippery slope from nationalism: many people of a nationalist disposition would descend towards racism unless special care were taken. Hope that doesn't offend anyone -- we're all easily corrupted in some way or another, I think that's one of Christianity's most perceptive principles.
ReplyDeleteTrump's salient feature is he doesn't give a damn. He's not careful. So I won't be surprised when his brand of nationalism a) attracts confirmed racists, and b) tends to corrupt innocent nationalists in a white supremacist direction.
I think they call it "white nationalism" because it paradoxically crosses international borders: a pro-Putin white-skinned alliance of economically sidelined factions of developed countries. Losing out on globalism's mixed economic blessings they are quite understandably disgruntled; and the print media (at least in the UK) is almost unanimous that it's the fault of immigrants, and the most visible immigrants are the ones who aren't white.
I don't know how much that narrative will appeal to you guys, but I think we can agree that we urgently need to pursue an economics that better serves those who have been ignored for too long by neoliberalism.
Jez, I understand where you're coming from. White nationalists preceded Trump and used to talk about carving out a whites only space in the US.
ReplyDeleteObama's presidency and all the talk of white privilege and "white people just need to die out" gave them new energy.
President Trump has never had any racism pinned on him, and has never been known as a racist. He also made very clear his America First was for all Americans and was directed mainly in the economic sphere.
The left is conducting one long smear against President Trump and anyone who does not loudly "resist" him.
I remember a light-hearted Louis Theroux documentary about America's "white nationalists" from back in the '90s (I also remember an instalment covering black nationalism from around the same time), and this stuff obviously has a continuous history going back all the way to the colonies. I know it's nothing new, but that doesn't mean there's no trend.
ReplyDeleteI said that Trump is not careful, and I stand by that. It's my judgement that his negligence will result in racist attitudes becoming more widespread. Whether Trump is, himself, racist is beside the point.
Capt. Timothy "Tse Tse" Gadfligh
ReplyDeleteBut Trump is WHITE, Fiddle. Even worse than that he's of GERMAN extraction, which automatically ties him to the Nazis in the popular mind. He's also a big success in country that was founded exclusively by white Englishmen and Europeans. the USA as always had a huge white majority until the immigration act of 1965 which was a calculated ploy on the part of progressives to change the demographics in favor of non-whites.
All those historical facts and elements work together to bolster the left's determnation to portray Trump in the worst possible light. They hate what they call "Whiteness," they hate our Founding Fathers, they hate our Constitution, they hate Western Civilization, they hate Christianity, the hate our Traditions, and they hate all the cultural talismans that remind us of our unique heritage.
It's never about "equity" or "justice" with the left no matter how loudly they proclaim otherwise; instead it is always about grabbing more power for themselves by any means fair or foul, so they can eventually dictate to us with no oppostion whatsoever.
If the leftist insurgents get their way, which looks increasingly likely, the y are bound and determuned to CRIMIALIZE the open expression of any and all facts, doctrines, feelings, ideas, notions that dare to question, criticize, countermand, or attempt to impugn the integrity of Marxian-Fabian-Communist-Socialist-Progressive-Liberal-Statist AUTHORITARIAN doctrine. doctrine.
SF typed in:
ReplyDeleteTrump supporters were beaten bloody in the streets in several cities during the election.
Is this mentioned by the mainstream news? If so, how often?
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteThese Gums (or whatever you're calling yourself this year). You're rather tiresome.
DeleteDon't you need to go perform an abortion or something?
Warren,
DeleteIt's the ATDSFG!
Warren,
DeleteYou'll see the explanation in an email.
Jez,
ReplyDeleteYou typed in as follows:
I think David Duke heard that sentiment pretty unambiguously. Whether by accident or design, it counts as aid and comfort IMO.
David Duke is a proven liar (over and over again, and on several levels), and he hears what he wants to hear. So, of course he says that DJT supports him.
I'm sick and tired of hearing Trump's words selectively cited -- by all sides all along the political spectrum.
ReplyDeleteToday, I posted the following at Infidel Bloggers Alliance:
This morning, MSNBC reported that...
...President Trump stated on Tuesday, August 15, 2017, that some of the torch bearers in Charlottesville were good people. The MSNBC report included the word torches in quotation marks.
I went to YouTube and listened to the entire speech...
I included a short list of questions I have.
In a minute, I will cross-post to this blog.
Now posted!
DeleteJez,
ReplyDeleteRacist attitudes, from whites and people of color, increased during President Obama's tenure.
People can argue day and night over "who started it," but it's got ugly during Obama and appears to be getting worse under Trump.
You want to blame President Trump for not being careful?
Have you reviewed the statements from President Obama, Atty General Eric Holder, Michelle Obama and others?
They threw gas on the fire, my friend.
Eric Holder calling people cowards, the First Lady whining about having to wake up every day in a house built by slaves, continually ripping off scabs of racial grievance from our past.
Sadly, President Obama never even tried to be the adult, honest broker in our discussions of race. He did nothing to heal divisions. Instead, he pandered to the BLM types.
We are in a very bad place, President Trump's election has probably made it worse, but the Obama Administration was an absolute disaster in this regard, and our nation is worse off and more people are dead because of it.
SF stated to Jez:
ReplyDeleteThe left is conducting one long smear against President Trump and anyone who does not loudly "resist" him.
Yes!
And any who do not "resist" Trump will be hunted down, vilified, and soon standing in unemployment lines.
Jez,
ReplyDeleteNationalism as a set of policies is not inherently racist.
Maybe on your side of The Pond.
Caveat: I'm not trying to be flip or brusque. I'm in a hurry because I have to go to work in a few minutes.
Jez,
DeleteI think that I understand what you originally said.
On this side of The Pond, the word nationalism has become "a dirty word" -- i.e., racist.
I don't say that I go along with that changed connotation.
oh ok, interesting.
DeleteDON'T let the ENEMY change the language to suit HIS subversive, power-seeking agenda.
DeleteDON'T let the ENEMY DEFINE you. [Notice please how Canardo, who is dos CERTAINLY and ENEMY, is forever telling us WHO and WHA we "really" ARE.]
When he tells you that what you are sayung MEANS something OTHER than what you mean, it's time to DISMISS the Enemy.
NEVER give the ENEMY a BREAK, because he will ALWAYS use it AGAINST you.
The ENEMY–- no matter how polite, sweet,"reasonable" and eager to engage in "friendly debate," –– is IMPLACABLE, IMPERVIOUS to REASON, LOGIC, ORDER and RESPECT. He is ALWAYS seeking more and more POWER so that he may ultimately CONTROL and then OBLITERATE you.
Capt. Timothy typed in as follows:
ReplyDeleteTrump is WHITE, Fiddle. Even worse than that he's of GERMAN extraction, which automatically ties him to the Nazis in the popular mind.
I think that you're correct in those statements.
Many factors are now in play.
**sigh**
Also, nothing against light-hearted looks at any subject, but the hardcore white supremacists here out west are nothing to laugh at. They are nasty, hate-filled criminals.
ReplyDeleteThey rob banks and armored cars and they murder people.
They gunned down Alan Berg, a popular (and bitingly ascerbic) Denver talk show host, in front of his home when I lived there. They killed him for being a sharp-tongued Jew who apparently lampooned causes they held dear (I never listened to him. I was young and listening to music stations).
It must also be said that just as every progressive protester there was not an antifa street fascist, every pro-statue person there was not a white nationalist or white supremacist.
The extremists have hijacked everything in this country, which if you think about it, logically follows politics hijacking everything.
We are trapped in a nut house.
"The sleep of reason produces monsters" -- Francisco Goya
ReplyDeleteSocial discourse in the US is an unhinged nuthouse, bereft of rationality, facts, intelligence, candor and goodwill.
A Google engineer wrote an anodyne paper exploring questions surrounding women in the tech industry, and they ejected him from the hive. Go read it so you can gain an appreciation for just how hysterical, unhinged and completely out-of-proportion the reaction was.
The Maoist left is setting up and US-Them situation where no one may be neutral:
* If you are not vociferously for high school men who feel like women going to the bathroom and showering with your daugher, you are a transphobe
* If you hold the scientifically-sound view that men and women are physically and biologically different, and point to data showing each of the two cohorts--while displaying much overlap--also display gender-specific tendencies to activites, employment preferences, while each also excels over the other in some categories, you are a misogynist troglodyte.
So, what we are seeing now is one more Maoist redline in America where no one can remain neutral: Are you for or against the left's Taliban-style iconoclasm? If you're not for taking wrecking balls, jackhammers and dynamite to every last confederate painting, statue or monument, you are a racist.
The left is a writhing troop of apes squatting on a stinking pile of logical fallacies where rational debate is not possible.
"Hell is a place where there is no reason"
Capt.Timothy "Tse Tse" Gadfligh said
DeleteNO, sir! HELL is a place where "REASON" –– in the form of endless, fruitless, tedious, exhausting, utterly futile, over-intellectualized argumentation becomes a substitute for CONSTRUTIVE ACTION, PRODUCTION, HONEST ACCOMPLISHMENT, the DEFEAT of MALEFACTORS, and firm RESOLUTION of CONFLICT.
The Great Issues may never be confronted, properly analyzed, and dealt with effectively over a few warm beers in the congenial, alcoholic atmosphere of a local pub.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteTS/WS,
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't necessary that you removed both of them.
Warren
"You want to blame President Trump for not being careful?" Yes, don't you?! Personal responsibility applies to him, why shouldn't it?
ReplyDelete"Have you reviewed the statements from President Obama, Atty General Eric Holder, Michelle Obama and others?" Not carefully, but is it not possible to interpret "ripping off scabs of racial grievance from our past" as acknowledging that which has been ignored for too long? As Trump said in that debate, to solve a problem you have to be able to state what the problem is. To whatever extent that's true, how does it not apply to race relations?
The reason Charlottesville is a big news story out here is because it seems like an unusually large number of neo-nazis and supremacists showed up. While protests around the removal of confederate statues is nothing new, it has previously been a handful of basic thugs, not hundreds of uniformed goons. Is this a one-off, or part of a worrying trend? Antifa has probably been counter-productive recently, providing exactly the kind of conflict that fascists crave; but at the point where it becomes necessary to pick a side I'll be with them.
The situation with the far right seems a much better fit for the cancer metaphor than Islamic terrorism, which has more of the character of an infection.