Jason Kessler, FBI Asset

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Jason Kessler, FBI Asset

Postby Wombaticus Rex » Fri Aug 10, 2018 12:45 pm

What with the anniversary and all: a thread for the examination of the curious gravitational center of Charlottesville, one Jason Kessler, the #Occupy Democrat who took a wrong turn at Albuquerque and wound up yet another outspoken white nationalist leader who just keeps messing things up and escalating conflicts.

Via: https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/ ... ottesville

Christian Science Monitor is a great source because their prose is straightforward and their narratives upfront. And this one is most instructive:

Mr. Kessler, the organizer of last year’s Unite the Right protest in Charlottesville, is staging an anniversary rally in Washington. After a year of being pilloried not only by the left but also his erstwhile allies, this is Kessler’s big opportunity to recover from a disastrous rally that shook the nation and shattered the self-described alt-right movement.


This is pretty curious framing. What exactly is he going to "recover," here? Is he running for office? Running a website? Starting a political party? Fundraising? The question of what the fuck Kessler actually does grows more interesting when you consider the fact Twitter made him a verified user in November 2017.

“The people at Unite The Right who were doxxed, injured, arrested, harassed, fired from their jobs, shunned by their families, and in one case driven to suicide had a lot of illusions stripped away from them. A lot of them are understandably bitter,” says Greg Johnson, editor-in-chief of the alt-right website Counter-Currents, who says the movement has dramatically contracted due to poor leadership and strategically unsound activism like the Charlottesville rally.


No tears for the victims, but the above excerpt illuminates Kessler's real job description, perhaps: disruption, exposure, and surveillance. Quantico has a lot of problems, but they're not stupid. They know that the biker-meth-Skinhead axis is a dinosaur relic and they'll need very different assets to penetrate the New Right. It's just a completely different constellation of bona fides now, and a much more international cast of characters -- even compared to the oddly diverse cast of characters orbiting Elohim City back in the day.

So, the post-Trump state of play has involved a lot of new actors and approaches -- experiments, probes. One such experiment, perhaps, was the quite recently converted Alt-Right blogger Jason Kessler.

It also needs to be considered that, perhaps, Mr. Kessler is both deeply stupid and mentally ill. That is at least his own defense these days:

He believes he was set up as the fall guy for the violence, which he blames largely on law enforcement failing to execute on the security plan Kessler had developed with them. He cites the December report by former US district attorney Thomas Heaphy, which found only one instance on Aug. 12 of a police officer intervening to stop violence between the two sides.


"Mentally Ill" in the sense that he actually believes the talking points he's been mechanically spouting since January 2017. We all have such friends: always a new crusade, always a new horizon.

Such a scenario is definitely less depressing, too. Life as an asset is queasy and shitty, because you're always on the verge of getting burned and you're only as useful as your latest results. The pay is also less than adequate. Which is why so many HUMINT assets have multiple side gigs.

His current origin story is a believable enough script -- plenty of such specimens exist in the wild, at least:

Kessler voted for former President Barack Obama but says the Democratic Party left him when it focused on identity politics.

“I realized – they hate white men, and I’m a white man,” he says. So he voted for Mr. Trump in 2016 and allied himself with the alt-right movement because they were pro-free speech and anti-political correctness.

“They weren’t afraid to stand up for men or white people or Christians,” says Kessler. But this year, he adds, “It’s been moving more into an arena of an unhealthy obsession with Jews. Everything is about Jews, Jews, Jews.”


(It should be noted that Kessler himself is of Jewish ancestry, at least by his own account. He also claims to be Christian now, always smart branding in the United States.)

Via: https://www.dailyprogress.com/news/loca ... da079.html

Laura Kleiner, a Democratic activist who lives in Staunton, said she dated Kessler for several months in 2013. She said Kessler was very dedicated to his liberal principles, and that he was a strict vegetarian, abstained from alcohol and drugs, embraced friends of different ethnicities and was an atheist.

“He broke up with me, and a lot of it was because I was not liberal enough,” she said. “I am a very progressive Democrat … but he didn’t like that I ate fish and that I’m a Christian.”


His attitudes on race and God, though, are less interesting than his Brandon Darby-ass behavioral profile...

According to a woman (who wished to remain anonymous) who was part of the Occupy movement camp in what was then called Lee Park, Kessler was present there for several weeks in late 2011. She said Kessler ultimately removed himself from the camp after activists there started to make it known that his presence was not welcomed.

“He was just so disagreeable that he’d start fights between other people. He was very manipulative and very aggressive,” the woman said.

“He wanted people to be more violent and aggressive. He wanted to be the leader of things. ... Even if his politics had been good, I don’t think people would have liked him,” she said.

The former occupier said Kessler also tried to attach himself to other “leftist” groups around that time, such as Food Not Bombs and an atheist social club. She said Kessler had attempted to insert himself in those groups and radicalize them.


Again, two equally credible readings are available here...angry young seeker, or shrewd operative. The dedication is what makes me contemplate the latter.

There was a curious flap at the beginning of the Unite The Right saga, involving a rival KKK protest. "KKK leader seeking Charlottesville rally has history as FBI informant," screamed the headlines. The source of this opposition research? Blogger Jason Kessler.

Via: https://www.dailyprogress.com/news/loca ... e11ff.html

Barker’s checkered history was noted by Jason Kessler, the right-wing blogger and founder of Unity and Security for America. Six days after Barker’s Klan group submitted its application, Kessler submitted his own application for an assembly in Lee Park, set to run from 12 to 5 p.m. Aug. 12.

In an email, Kessler called Barker “an FBI informant and multiple felon” and claimed that he was “being paid by left-wing groups to discredit legitimate conservatives.”

“Someone is trying to discredit my rally by bringing in this jackass,” Kessler wrote.


Putting the old dogs on notice. This is another pattern of effective behavior: accuse your opponent of doing exactly what you're doing before anyone has a chance to see that and accuse you.

Since Charlottesville, however, Kessler is changing directions again. In the Christian Science Monitor piece, he clearly states how he aims to reposition himself:

“There’s so much hate in these social issues – it’s easy to get swallowed up in the hate, and easy to react to your critics with hate. It creates a dark cloud over your heart and your soul,” says Kessler, who says he’s turned to his Christian faith and its teachings of love.


While Kessler is damaged goods, there will be several actors occupying that space quite shortly. (And none of them will be Richard Spencer.) It won't be hard to find wholesome, actual Christians willing to put a prime-time-ready face to a new, polite and reasonable White Nationalism. It will be hard to find one who can handle the pressure, though.
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Re: Jason Kessler, FBI Asset

Postby Iamwhomiam » Fri Aug 10, 2018 1:40 pm

Very good, Mr. WRex, thank you.
Barker’s checkered history was noted by Jason Kessler, the right-wing blogger and founder of Unity and Security for America. Six days after Barker’s Klan group submitted its application, Kessler submitted his own application for an assembly in Lee Park, set to run from 12 to 5 p.m. Aug. 12.

In an email, Kessler called Barker “an FBI informant and multiple felon” and claimed that he was “being paid by left-wing groups to discredit legitimate conservatives.”

“Someone is trying to discredit my rally by bringing in this jackass,” Kessler wrote.



Putting the old dogs on notice. This is another pattern of effective behavior: accuse your opponent of doing exactly what you're doing before anyone has a chance to see that and accuse you.


Not quite sure of your meaning of "putting the old dogs on notice," here. To me, it's more like he preemptively outed another operative to enhance his credibility with members more than the pattern of effective behavior you've described. Doing so may have sidelined him - temporarily.

Any photos of his baptism?
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Re: Jason Kessler, FBI Asset

Postby liminalOyster » Fri Aug 10, 2018 2:09 pm

Excellent find.
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Re: Jason Kessler, FBI Asset

Postby dada » Fri Aug 10, 2018 3:27 pm

My spidey-sense, which I do not trust one bit, says the guy works for Democrats, Inc, has been the whole time. Discredit occupy, discredit the tighty-whitey right. Same feeling I get from that 'kooky johnny weedseed candidate that says he's from outer space,' in the stories that should come from the onion thread. Spoiler candidate, indeed. Spoiler for who, really, though.

Anyway, just my two spidey cents. Good point about the csm. One of the few news sites I can read without having to constantly suppress the gag reflex.

edited to add a correction: johnny weedseed is in The Russian conspiracy as RI subject thread, not the stories that should come from the onion thread.
Both his words and manner of speech seemed at first totally unfamiliar to me, and yet somehow they stirred memories - as an actor might be stirred by the forgotten lines of some role he had played far away and long ago.
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Re: Jason Kessler, FBI Asset

Postby Elvis » Fri Aug 10, 2018 6:39 pm

Wombaticus Rex wrote:Jason Kessler, FBI Asset


I think you've nailed it. We need to be looking under more rocks.
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Re: Jason Kessler, FBI Asset

Postby Grizzly » Fri Aug 10, 2018 10:54 pm

Image
“The more we do to you, the less you seem to believe we are doing it.”

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Re: Jason Kessler, FBI Asset

Postby dada » Sat Aug 11, 2018 12:13 am

What's the gif? I mean besides a waste of bandwidth.
Both his words and manner of speech seemed at first totally unfamiliar to me, and yet somehow they stirred memories - as an actor might be stirred by the forgotten lines of some role he had played far away and long ago.
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Re: Jason Kessler, FBI Asset

Postby Grizzly » Sat Aug 11, 2018 2:02 am

The violent Antifa attacker seen here is Eric Clanton. He split open a peaceful protestor's scalp with a bike lock. A leftist judge let him off on four felony assault charges and instead gave him probation.

https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/95yypi/the_violent_antifa_attacker_seen_here_is_eric/

I smell bacon...
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Re: Jason Kessler, FBI Asset

Postby American Dream » Sat Aug 11, 2018 3:12 pm

The alt-right is debating whether to try to look less like Nazis

“Optics-cucking,” the debate roiling white nationalists, explained.

By Jane Coaston jane.coaston@vox.com Aug 10, 2018, 10:40am EDT

Image
Alt-right rally attendees at “Unite the Right” in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 12, 2017.

Tensions are flaring between two warring camps inside the alt-right movement ahead of their planned march on the White House Sunday: those who think they should try to look a little less like anti-Semites and racists, and those who think that would make them a bunch of “optics-cucks.”

“We need to remain in the realm of the hip, cool, sexy, fun,” wrote Andrew Anglin, a neo-Nazi who runs the white supremacist website the Daily Stormer, urging his readers not to attend the rally. “We need to speak to the culture. We do not want the image of being a bunch of weird losers who march around like assholes while completely outnumbered and get mocked by the entire planet.”

But others, like white supremacist Christopher Cantwell (who was recently barred from entering the state of Virginia for five years), disagree. In a blog post earlier this year, he wrote that those within the white supremacist movement should “become Republicans, not revolutionaries,” but added, “This is not to say we should descend into optics cucking. Far from it. Anyone who dares punch right” — as in, anyone who criticizes those who wear neo-Nazi regalia to rallies or uses white supremacist slogans in public — “should be descended upon with all of the venom we can muster.”

“Unite the Right 2,” the sequel to last year’s alt-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was organized largely by “white civil rights activist” Jason Kessler. It is intended, per the application, to protest what participants feel were civil rights abuses at their gathering last year, where young white men carried tiki torches and marched to Nazi-inspired chants and where a counterprotester was killed.

According to Kessler, it was those “civil rights abuses” by Charlottesville officials “that led to the violence at last year’s rally” — though it was a member of the alt-right who murdered a woman by purposely driving into a crowd of counterprotesters. White people aren’t “able to peacefully assemble. We’re not able to speak,” Kessler said in an interview, though he, as Slate pointed out in June, had permission to do both.

Before Charlottesville, the alt-right and white nationalists believed that their movement was ready for primetime and, more importantly, real political power amid the rise of Donald Trump. But as Unite the Right descended into violence and murder in Charlottesville, the subsequent legal fallout and the massive backlash by the public suggested to many in the movement that, in fact, it wasn’t prepared to emerge from the confines of the dark corners of the internet. Under public pressure, the alt-right has largely disintegrated.

Those who remain are divided over how best to grow their ranks. Some of the biggest names in white supremacy and neo-Nazism — the same people who showed up last year to chant, “Jews will not replace us,” and wave swastikas — aren’t going to the rally, and they’re telling their followers and fellow travelers not to go either. They are concerned about the “optics” — that a movement made up of anti-Semites and racists might appear to be a movement of anti-Semites and racists.


Continues: https://www.vox.com/2018/8/10/17670996/ ... ottesville
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Re: Jason Kessler, FBI Asset

Postby dada » Sat Aug 11, 2018 3:30 pm

Any hard numbers on how many tighty-whiteys and anti-fafaflunkies there are? Without them we don't know if we're looking at something mostly media-generated.

With no context, perspectives can become warped. It could be just small vocal minorities doing that thing where you use puppets to cast shadows on the wall, making it seem like your posse is bigger than it really is.

Circulation of hard numbers may go a long way towards defusing the situation. The scuffles become depressing but laughable, instead of high drama for pushing emotional buttons.

Edited for figure of speech adjustments.
Last edited by dada on Sun Aug 12, 2018 1:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Jason Kessler, FBI Asset

Postby American Dream » Sat Aug 11, 2018 3:43 pm

The permit is for a maximum of 400 right-handed monkeywrenches. 100-400, as I recall.
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Re: Jason Kessler, FBI Asset

Postby dada » Sat Aug 11, 2018 4:01 pm

Yes, but has anyone done any serious research on numbers, state by state, nation by nation?

I mean, this optic war game only serves power. It doesn't do anything for stuffing the nazi in a coffin, locking it up, drowning it in lake totenkoph, and giving the key to Baphomet to hold for safekeeping. Which is the whole point of this exercise, I thought.

edited to add: I'm saying containing the nazi-genie doesn't mean putting it back in its bottle, it means smashing the bottle, breaking the lamp. The homeless nazi-genie is weak, easy to stuff in the coffin.

The old, defeated nazi will always be with us. Bags groceries at Wegman's supermart, goes home to nurse his psychic wounds from the bombing of Dresden with a six pack of Weinstephaner. That is not the nazi-genie, that's just a broken old man.

I'm saying that we must have some sense of proportion. Who or what are we really fighting?
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Re: Jason Kessler, FBI Asset

Postby American Dream » Sun Aug 12, 2018 9:16 am

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Re: Jason Kessler, FBI Asset

Postby dada » Sun Aug 12, 2018 10:45 am

HBO?

Who watches this stuff? What kind of ratings does it get, I wonder.

Is it too much to ask for a brief summary? I choose the videos I watch carefully, there are only so many minutes in a day. And I already feel like I wasted one, just looking at the unplayed video! haha
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Re: Jason Kessler, FBI Asset

Postby Wombaticus Rex » Sun Aug 12, 2018 10:58 am

dada » Sun Aug 12, 2018 9:45 am wrote:HBO?

Who watches this stuff? What kind of ratings does it get, I wonder.


It mostly gets watched on youtube and facebook because HBO makes it available free. This is push content, not pull content.

Documentaries are perhaps the most important front of the current American culture war, even with more literate demographics, their impact is hard to overstate. Cantwell always wanted to be famous, but perhaps failed to anticipate that his true talent would be reality television breakdowns -- he definitely emerged as the "star" of HBO's documentary last year.

Someone asked off-venue why I concluded Kessler was FBI, since there is *nothing* in the OP to implicate him as such. The United States is a patchwork of turf, though, and when events like this pop off in Virginia, well, that says a lot about who gave the nod. In the labyrinth of citations, false datapoints and post-mod angst that brought us here, it can be easy to forget that we do, in fact, have maps now, for all our folly & hubris.
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