A quick thread on Portland and the distortions of Andy Ngo, who was not at Saturday's rally.
Man in the blue hat? Gregory Issacson, an alt-right Holocaust-denying troll w ties to Patriot Prayer & Identity Evropa.
Antifa didn't "find" him. He deliberately provoked all day. Rode his bike into the middle of black bloc protesters. Sprayed in face? Yes... with silly string
Andy claims a bicyclist swerved to avoid "an antifa person." A reporter on the ground saw it differently.
This dude was part of American Guard, whom the Anti-Defamation League has described as "hardcore white supremacists." He opened the bus door to charge at counter-protesters with a hammer, which an anti-fascist then seized from him.
I saw this all go down. Police were absolutely in sight. They arrived quickly and broke things up.
Andy omits some context here, insinuates the bear spray belonged to these anti-fascists. I don't think that's true. Early Saturday I saw cops confiscate a flag pole from a crew of Proud Boys/Portland Liberation/MAGA people. Also confiscated: that identical can of bear spray.
And this man is John Turano (aka Based Spartan), a well-known & violent white nationalist. That "young girl" is his adult daughter, who is in her 20s.
Turano goes to these rallies to provoke violence. @jason_a_w saw Turano upset that alt-righters weren't going after antifa.
And here's a post Turano made before the rally. "I hope my daughter gets her ass beat... standing with me is dangerous.... I welcome the violent and the hate." (h/t @krossny1 for finding this)
Another apparent distortion from Andy explained here:
I'm sure people have identified other distortions he's made, but at any rate, Andy Ngo has found a lucrative far-right grift amplifying anti-antifa propaganda.
It's a project with a few goals:
1) it wants government repression of leftist movements 2) it wants to portray leftist movements as somehow just as violent as far-right ones, which is a blatant lie. 3) it seeks to both obscure & distract from deadly white nationalist violence
I’m at Columbia this evening where a group of Christian nationalists will be marching in support of Israel
Sean Feucht, the Christian nationalist preacher and organizer of this rally. This week he talked about abt how what’s happening at Columbia is a sign of End Times. Just asked him what happens to Jews during the End Times, & whether they’d have to convert. He refused to answer.
Everywhere you look in established right & "New Right" circles, you see an unapologetic embrace of authoritarianism/monarchism. They're not hiding their hatred for democracy. "No enemies to the right." A "Christian prince." A "monarch/CEO." Eugenics... All w/ buy-in from GOP
NEW @RichardHanania is a right-wing star. A @UTAustin scholar, his fans include JD Vance, Thiel, Musk, Sacks, Rufo. @HarperCollins will publish his book "The Origins of Woke"
Hanania used the pseudonym "Richard Hoste" to become a formative voice during the rise of the racist "alt-right" in the 2010s, writing for the most vile publications in America, including the Occidental Observer, Counter-Currents, Taki’s Mag, & VDare. huffpost.com/entry/richard-…
He was among the first writers tapped by Richard Spencer to write for , which became a main propaganda organ of the nascent “alt-right."
NEW: Renton's a trans man. HIs mom — Miss Illinois 1996 — is a MAGA influencer traveling the US calling the existence of trans people 'demonic'
But Renton says his childhood with his mom was hell — a hell the GOP is trying to recreate for all trans kids huffpost.com/entry/trans-so…
Renton's mom is Tania Joy Gibson. A former Miss America contestant, these days Tania speaks from the same stages as Eric Trump & Michael Flynn, talking abt how gender-affirming care for trans folks is a scheme by the devil to steal the "seed" of humanity https://t.co/sDldqLQHRrhuffpost.com/entry/trans-so…
Here's Tania at the Miss America competition in 1996 in Atlantic City. Her political platform was "protecting at-risk youth."
John Donnelly, who marched with Nazis in Charlottesville before returning to his job as a police officer in Mass., bragged about wearing his Right Wing Death Squad shirt to the gym. huffpost.com/entry/john-don…