@Nonilex

"It is a cardinal rule of MAGA rhetoric that any accusation is a confession.

If they say the left is a cult, it is because they fear the mirror. If they warn of censorship, it is because they crave control. If they wail about persecution, it is because they need an enemy to remain coherent.

Consider the daily parade: accusations that liberals are snowflakes, while MAGA melts at the removal of a statue. Laments about cancel culture from those who cheered Colin Kaepernick’s blackballing. Cries of stolen elections from the movement that tried to steal one.

This is not irony. It is psychology.

Projection, as Freud once taught and modern psychologists like Jost have confirmed, is the ego’s emergency exit. When beliefs contradict behavior, the mind exports the conflict. The result is MAGA’s psychic equilibrium, a worldview in which they can accuse others of authoritarianism while draping themselves in flags and preparing for civil war."

https://therationalleague.substack.com/p/the-mirror-is-the-message

"The ways in which the administration is exploiting the #Jewish community's legitimate fears & concerns about #antisemitism is ultimately undermining Jewish safety," said Spitalnick.

Wilson echoed those talking points in a 2023 post on X.

"Leo Frank raped & murdered a 13-year-old girl. He also tried to frame a black man for his crime," Wilson wrote in 2023.

The #Pentagon did not respond to NPR's request for comment.

Spitalnick, of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, criticized the admin's selective focus on alleged #antisemitism among #Trump's ideological opponents while ignoring concerns within its own ranks.

At the Dept of #Defense, spox Kingsley Wilson faced criticism from #Jewish #CivilRights groups for sharing #antisemitic #ConspiracyTheories on social media, including references to the "great replacement theory" & the lynching of Leo Frank in 1915.

Historians widely believe that Frank was falsely accused of raping & murdering a 13-year-old girl, although antisemitic #extremists & #NeoNazis continue to assert his guilt.

During #KashPatel's #Senate confirmation hearing, Sen #DickDurbin, D-IL, asked, "Are you familiar with Mr. #StewPeters?"

"Not off the top of my head," Patel responded.

Peters disputed Patel's testimony.

"Clearly, Kash Patel is lying," he said in response to Patel's Senate testimony. "He absolutely does know who I am."

A spokesperson for the #FBI declined to comment.

Ingrassia, Cauley & Martin are not the only #Trump admin officials connected to #antisemitic #extremists.

Before becoming #FBI director, #KashPatel appeared 8 separate times on a podcast hosted by #FarRight #ConspiracyTheorist #StewPeters, who promotes #HolocaustDenial. Peters posted a photo of himself holding #Hitler's #MeinKampf w/the message "visionary leadership." In recent days, he attacked the founder of Barstool Sports, Dave Portnoy, w/antisemitic vitriol.

#Trump appointed *#conservative* activist #EdMartin to multiple #DOJ roles, after his nomination for #USattorney for #DC, failed. Martin's ties to Hale-Cusanelli played a key role in the collapse of his nomination to that role.

In Aug 2024, Martin praised Hale-Cusanelli as an "extraordinary man" & "extraordinary leader" & gave him an award for promoting "God, family & country." (Martin also gave Ingrassia an award immediately after Hale-Cusanelli spoke)

Later that year, #RachelCauley attended part of Hale-Cusanelli's #criminal trial & sat with his supporters.

On social media, Cauley referred to the trial as a "clown trial" & said Hale-Cusanelli's conviction was a "complete miscarriage of justice."

Reached by phone this week, Cauley told an NPR reporter three times, "You can send me an email," before hanging up.

She did not respond to subsequent emails.

#RachelCauley also handled media requests for the group. In 2022, the founder of the #PatriotFreedomProject gave a lengthy interview to the explicitly #WhiteNationalist website #CounterCurrents. (The editor-in-chief of Counter-Currents authored a book called The White Nationalist Manifesto & has written about "#Hitler's Significance for Our Struggle.") After that interview received wider attention online, it appeared to be removed from the website.

The communications director for the White House Office of Management & Budget

Before joining the #Trump admin as the communications director for the #OMB, #RachelCauley served on the board of the #PatriotFreedomProject. The nonprofit group was founded in direct response to the arrest of Hale-Cusanelli on #Jan6 charges.

Ingrassia, responding to emailed questions from NPR, said, "I denounce any hateful or incendiary remark Mr. Hale made. But my advocacy for J6ers is not based on any particular remark, but on the principle that all Americans are entitled to due process & free speech."

[reminder, Ingrassia works w/ #DHS, which is currently deporting hundreds of individuals without #DueProcess of any sort]

The "Tim" whom Ingrassia referenced is Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, who was convicted of multiple nonviolent offenses for storming the Capitol on #Jan6 & was later pardoned by #Trump.

Federal prosecutors described Hale-Cusanelli as a "#Nazi sympathizer" who once went to work at a naval weapons station with a "#Hitler mustache." He also recorded a lengthy #antisemitic video rant in which he compared Orthodox #Jews to a "plague of locusts."

On social media, Ingrassia has written that "dissident voices" like #NickFuentes belong in *#conservative* #politics. He wrote a Substack post titled "Free Nick Fuentes," criticizing the platform X for banning Fuentes over hate speech. Fuentes' X account was later reinstated.

(#Trump dined w/Fuentes, alongside #KanyeWest …at his Mar-a-Lago resort in 2022. Trump said he "knew nothing about" Fuentes. Ye has since recorded a song glorifying #AdolfHitler.)

"I've seen him at other events. I'm familiar with his social media," Moore told NPR. "And for some reason, he chose to stand directly in front of me, so he was hard to miss."

Livestream footage shows Ingrassia approaching #NickFuentes, smiling before he spoke as Fuentes' supporters chanted, "We want Nick!"

Ingrassia was also seen at a June 2024 rally in Detroit led by #NickFuentes, a #HolocaustDenier & #WhiteNationalist.

As Fuentes began his speech, his supporters chanted, "Down with #Israel!"

"I don't know about you," Fuentes said at the rally, "but calling Donald #Trump a #racist only makes me like him more."

Amanda Moore, a freelance journalist, spotted Ingrassia in the crowd & reported for The Intercept that he stayed for approximately 20 minutes.

#PaulIngrassia, currently serving as the #Trump White House liaison to #DHS, has ties to multiple figures widely known for promoting #antisemitism.

In 2023, Ingrassia repeatedly praised the controversial "manosphere" influencer #AndrewTate & worked on his #legal team. Romanian authorities have accused Tate of #HumanTrafficking. Florida's attorney general also opened an investigation into Tate & his brother, Tristan Tate. The two men deny all wrongdoing.

The #Trump admin has used the fight against #antisemitism as justification for #deportation of pro-#Palestinian #student #protesters & #funding cuts to #universities.

Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, argues the admin is using antisemitism as a pretext.

"If the administration were serious about countering antisemitism, first & foremost they wouldn't be appointing people w/antisemitic & other extremist ties to senior roles within the administration," Spitalnick said.

@ndaktuell BDS is explicitly against boycotting individual Jewish and Israeli artists, and only for boycotting Israeli institutions involved in the occupation and war crimes. Equating Israeli organisations with Jews, as the Bundesregierung does here, is actually antisemitic. Just check the IHRA definition.