As Israel's Netanyahu hysterically calls US campuses "horrific..German[y] in the 1930s", remember who took him to power: the divisive US operative Arthur Finkelstein, who also gave us autocrat Viktor Orban, antisemitic conspiracy theories, and indirectly, Donald Trump. 1/
From 1970, Finkelstein changed politics in the US and around the world with virulently negative campaigns that pushed fear & division ("rejectionist voting"), microtargeted messaging, 3rd party spoilers, and a complete disregard for truth and values. 2/ nytimes.com/2017/08/19/us/…
Finkelstein, who was both Jewish and gay, won races for homophobic candidates with antisemitic messaging. It's beyond twisted. He got Bibi elected in 1996; Bibi referred him to Viktor Orban - and to help Orban win he created the George Soros conspiracy. 2/ buzzfeednews.com/article/hnsgra…
It was Finkelstein who pushed Trump to hire Paul Manafort, deep in Ukraine fuckery in 2016 and formerly in business with Finkelstein protege Roger Stone. Trump's campaign used Finkelstein's tactics: polarize the electorate, make people fear each other. As Bibi is doing now. 3/
Manafort had learned in Ukraine how to create violent, astroturfed protests, whose players looked enough like normal folks they stymied law enforcement. In 2006, he shut down the US Marines and NATO. On Jan 6 the Capitol attack used the same gameplan. 4/ taskandpurpose.com/news/manafort-…
For 5 decades Finkelstein's proteges ("Arthur's Boys", including Roger Stone, Terry Dolan, Frank Luntz) have helped make US politics divisive and deeply twisted. Dolan, secretly gay, co-founded the Moral Majority and helped elect anti-gay candidates. 5/ archive.harpers.org/1987/08/pdf/Ha…
Finkelstein and his gay proteges fanned anti-gay hate. He and his Jewish proteges built anti-Jewish conspiracies. What Netanyahu is doing tonight is straight from Finkelstein's playbook: stoke fear and division, no matter who it hurts. US reporters must call him on it. 6/
This account focuses on Jan 6 - but J6 is Finkelstein's legacy too. Roger Stone's Proud Boys led the attack. ESI, who'd worked with Paul Manafort, ran the rallies. And the QAnon conspiracies that inflamed the rioters were pushed by a staffer of Ron Paul - Terry Dolan's client. 7/
Today saw three red flags: Bibi's speech, and visits to Columbia by Mike Johnson (J6 organizer) and Gavin McInnes (Proud Boys founder). As in 2020, protests can be used to stoke fear and violence. The only way to fight back is with sanity and calm. 8/
Sure, it's funny that Fox News is now using "86" in talking about a fired reporter, when less than a month ago they demanded the FBI investigate "86" as a death threat. But the joke is on us. Performative outrage over bullshit is a test of YOU, to see if you'll accept it. 1/
You can't criticize Fox's words as hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is when someone committed to the truth is inconsistent. Fox and others are post-truth: they're just making noises to see if they can get you to react. They're gaming you. 2/
All of us have a psychological need for rationality. We need to feel that words have meaning, that people mean what they say. We do understand that people lie: a lie is a meaningful but false statement, to deceive. But what Fox is doing here is worse, and harder to cope with. 3/
ABC's explanation of why they suspended correspondent Terry Moran misuses the word "objective". Moran said Stephen Miller was a "world-class hater" and "his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment". Those are objectively true statements. Miller's hatred is deeply documented. 1/
Moran ascribed to Miller an emotion: "hatred". A decade of reporting has documented, objectively, that Miller hates. In 2018, LA Mag interviewed his high school classmates and reported their stories of how Miller hated minorities. "Hate" is their word. 2/ lamag.com/politics/steph…
Terry Moran also said that for Stephen Miller, "hatred is his spiritual nourishment". That's colorful language, but also documented. Here's a high school classmate of Miller's with a story of Miller saying awful, provocative things to immigrants: "he wanted to be hated". 3/
Reminder: Trump has tried this before. It's part of his dream of control, to send in the National Guard against the will of a state or mayor. On May 29, 2020, he Tweeted the threat: "Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.." 1/
Trump has also overtly sought a Secretary of Defense willing to order the National Guard to shoot at protestors. In 2020 he fired Mark Esper and put in Chris Miller for that reason. Pete Hegseth may face a terrible test now. 2/
On Jan 6, the National Guard arrived late likely because sane heads in the Pentagon delayed them til local police had regained control, out of fear of what Trump might order. There are fewer sane heads now. Hegseth is already failing his test. 3/
Howard Lutnick, our Sec. of Commerce, shows a disconnect from material reality that will make Americans die. A weather forecast cannot be "automated" or MADE AT ALL without data. And Trump is cutting the satellites and weather stations that provide that data. 1/
Lutnick, who is in charge of NOAA and its National Weather Service, seem to think that if you say "web" and "cloud" and "computer" and "AI" then by some magic knowledge appears. But weather forecasts depend on MEASUREMENTS. Which Lutnick is cutting. 2/ kcci.com/article/propos…
The proposed NOAA budget cuts both current satellite operations and planned future satellites meant to make better predictions. Lutnick's testimony suggests: people have forgotten that not everything is a simulation, that reality exists (and bites). 3/ spacenews.com/omb-suggests-n…
Since Frank Luntz is defending Elon Musk, a recap: Luntz, like Roger Stone, was one of "Arthur's boys", mentored by Arthur Finkelstein, the dark lord of negative campaigns who (tho gay and Jewish), pushed homophobic far-right extremists - and gave us Orban, Netanyahu, & Trump. 1/
It was the Jewish Arthur Finkelstein who created the antisemitic George Soros conspiracy, to propel Victor Orban to power. Anything to get his clients elected. Everything Luntz says now is shaded by that history. 2/ buzzfeednews.com/article/hnsgra…
It was Arthur Finkelstein who brought in Roger Stone's partner Paul Manafort - who had been working for a pro-Russian politician in Ukraine - as Trump's first campaign manager. 3/
Exactly as predicted, now that DOGE has scraped all your personal data from government agencies, it is being given to Peter Thiel's Palantir. It was always going to be Peter, who dreamed of dictatorship for decades, patiently built up his "political project" to seize power. 1/
The NYT doesn't say HOW it was decided to give Palantir all your personal data, only that it was a no-bid contract directed by "Elon Musk's DOGE". (DOGE was always a project of Peter's too.) But Thiel had installed a protege to do just this. 2/ nytimes.com/2025/05/30/tec…
One of Trump's first actions as president was to install Greg Barbaccia, a longtime Palantir employee, as US Federal Chief Information Officer, with power to direct US software systems. This account called it: he was there to give Palantir your data. 3/